BRITAIN is heading for “economic collapse” and Sir Keir Starmer will be forced to call an election within two years, Nigel Farage warned today.

The Reform UK leader insisted Chancellor Rachel Reeves will soon face a reckoning from the financial markets over Labour’s borrowing and spending plans.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage delivers a speech at Banking Hall in the City of LondonCredit: PA

Chancellor Rachel ReevesCredit: PA
He predicted the government will be pushed into a full-blown austerity Budget – forced to slash spending and raise taxes – as investors lose confidence in the country’s finances.

Speaking in London’s Banking Hall, he said: “The markets are getting nervy.

“We’ve seen this with 10 and 30-year gilt yields. In fact, I think my own view is that in two budgets’ time, the markets will actually force the Chancellor into what will be a genuine austerity Budget.

“At which point the Left in the Labour Party won’t buy it.

“And it’s why I still stand by my prediction that there will be a general election, caused by economic collapse that will happen in 2027.”

The Reform boss also said Britain had been “living under an illusion” about its economic strength for years and accused politicians of ignoring the warning signs.

He claimed that without mass immigration “there wouldn’t have been any GDP growth at all” in recent years and accused Westminster of “kidding itself” about the true state of the economy.

The speech marked an attempt to show Reform can be trusted with the nation’s finances after being accused of “fantasy politics” earlier this year.

Reform was previously slammed for making tens of billions in unfunded pledges, including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and hiking winter fuel payments.

Today’s City event was designed to show he is now serious about fiscal discipline – insisting tax cuts will only come “once the deficit is under control.”

He told the audience: “We want to cut taxes, of course we do, but we understand substantial tax cuts given the dire state of debt and our finances are not realistic at this current moment in time.”

But Frage said his “aspiration” was still to lift the income tax threshold to £20,000 to help people back to work.

He said: “Well, I want the tax threshold to go to £20,000. I think it’s vital for this country we get it there.

“It’s vital that with benefits and getting people back to work, we have incentives. I think that’s really, really important. As well as toughening of the rules, it needs the carrot and stick approach.”

He also promised to “immediately remove inheritance tax from family farms and from family-run businesses” and said Reform would raise the thresholds at which people start to pay tax “to begin the process of getting people out of the 16-hour-a-week working debt trap that so many people find themselves in.”

Mr Farage claimed that his party had put forward “the biggest benefit cuts you’ve probably ever heard any government do.”

He said: “I will make this absolute promise — we will substantially cut the benefits bill. We will reduce the size of the public sector, we will look, as we’ve already started, at public sector pensions.”

Addressing confusion over his benefits policy, Mr Farage said: “There seem to have been several misunderstandings as to where Reform stands on benefits, as if we are the party that will throw around the money like confetti.

“But what I said was we should remove the two-child cap for British working couples… for lower-paid couples who are both working, the cost of childcare is exorbitant. It’s a disincentive for having more children, a disincentive for going out to work.”

The Reform leader also blasted Treasury rules on self-employment, saying: “The IR35 rules are ridiculous. They’re stifling innovation. They even drive some in their fifties just to throw their hands up and go into early retirement.”

He pledged to scrap North Sea windfall taxes and Net Zero subsidies, saying: “Let’s get the North Sea operating. Let’s have a look at some of the new onshore gas fields that have been found in this country that will produce tens of thousands of well paid jobs.”

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Farage blasted the “political class who are not business people,” taking a swipe at former human rights lawyer Sir Keir Starmer, saying Britain is “led by human rights lawyers, not entrepreneurs.”

He added: “You’re put in charge of a big department, and then after 14 months, when you’ve just about got your feet under the table, Keir Starmer or whoever else it might be decides to reshuffle you. It’s a farce.”

Mr Farage vowed to bring businesspeople into government as ministers and advisers to “change attitudes towards hard work, making money and success.”

SOURCE: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/37201686/nigel-farage-speech-economy-budget-reeves/