P THE BOATS IN 100 DAYS..! – Nigel Farage reveals Reform’s sweeping plan to block migrants, slash benefits and cut taxes
Nigel Farage will today pledge to stop the boats and cut the cost of living in the first 100 days of a Reform government.
The Reform UK leader will warn Parliament it could be forced to sit seven days a week to push through a blizzard of legislation designed to deal with the ‘national emergency’ facing Britain.
The agenda for Reform’s first 100 days will include halting small boat crossings and scrapping green levies on energy bills to save the average household £250.
The party’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick yesterday vowed to use an emergency Budget to cut £80billion from public spending, half of it from the bloated welfare bill.
Mr Jenrick said the move would cut Britain’s debt interest payments by £28billion a year and free up cash for tax cuts to ease the cost of living and kickstart economic growth.
Mr Farage acknowledged this week he has been left ‘ratty and upset’ by a string of controversies about his party’s funding, including a £5million ‘personal’ donation from a Thai-based crypto-billionaire he failed to declare.
Reform has also slipped in the polls in the wake of Andy Burnham‘s political honeymoon and a Tory revival under Kemi Badenoch.
Mr Farage will use his party’s annual conference in Birmingham this weekend to try to get back on the front foot.
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Nigel Farage pictured at the business day at the Reform UK Annual Conference at the NEC in Birmingham
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Migrants on board a taxi boat at the beach at Camiers in France before they cross the English Channel
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A person attending the business day of Reform UK Annual Conference on September 3
He will repeat his claim that a general election will be held next year. And, despite his party’s recent difficulties, he will insist Reform can win it, adding: ‘The two-party system that’s lasted for 100 years is coming to an end.’
Reform frontbenchers have been ordered to come up with a series of ambitious changes for the party’s first 100 days.
Mr Farage will warn today that those who fail to deliver within weeks of the party coming to power will be sacked.
Reform has already set out radical plans to stop the boats, including ditching international human rights laws, banning illegal migrants from claiming asylum and towing boats back to France.
Mr Farage will use talks today with France’s National Rally party president Jordan Bardella to discuss co-operation on halting illegal immigration in the Channel.
National Rally’s hard-Right leader Marine Le Pen is among the favourites to succeed Emmanuel Macron in next year’s presidential elections.
Mr Bardella said last year his party was willing to work with Reform on stopping the small boats – including allowing UK Border Force to push dinghies back to France.
Reform yesterday dismissed Labour’s £660million deal with France, which ministers claim has helped cut migrant crossings this summer.
Deputy leader Richard Tice said: ‘We should not be sending hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to the French to not do the job properly.
‘The way to solve this is to pick up, rescue and return. It is the humanitarian thing to do. The French are in breach of their international obligations by not stopping the boats and if we have to do the job for them then that’s what we’ll do.’
Mr Farage will today pledge to take personal charge of the mission to stop the boats, overseeing the work of the party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf.
And he will warn Establishment figures in Parliament, the civil service and the courts that Reform will not allow them to obstruct its plans.
Mr Farage will vow to do ‘anything and everything to make the first 100 days work’, adding: ‘If the Lords, judiciary or civil service get in our way, they will discover just how determined we are.’
A party spokesman said: ‘Within days of winning the election we will introduce dozens of Bills and force Parliament to sit all through the summer for seven days a week to pass them.’
Reform plans to spell out its plans in its election manifesto in the hope that the Establishment ‘Blob’ will respect their mandate and not try to block them.
But they are also drawing up plans to override opposition, including packing the House of Lords with hundreds of peers.
The electoral challenge facing the party was underlined by a new study yesterday showing it is likely to face significant tactical voting at a general election.
The Policy Institute at King’s College London found that 41 per cent of voters named Reform as the party they most want to stop from winning.
Almost a third of voters (29 per cent) would consider voting Conservative to keep Reform out in a close contest.
Almost half of Green and Lib Dem voters would consider voting Labour to keep Reform out.
