Nigel Farage launches Reform’s manifesto promising tax cuts and ‘net-zero migration’ as he targets Labour heartlands
NIGEL Farage today unveiled huge tax cuts and end the “population explosion” as part of his “contract with the people”.
The Reform leader launched the “Great British Tax Cut” as he unveiled the party’s election manifesto in Gurnos, South Wales.
Farage, 60, said once again his party was the “real opposition” to the Conservatives and pledged to offer “genuine change” in a dig at Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour.
The Reform leader, alongside chairman Richard Tice, launched the document – titled “Our Contract With You” – in a run-down community centre.
Farage has repeatedly refused to call his pledges a “manifesto”, blasting that the word is “associated with lies” for other political parties.
He said the building showed “exactly what happens to a country when Labour is in charge”.
In a speech marking the launch of the document, he said: “The reason they voted for Brexit is we would get back control of our borders.
“And none of that has happened – in fact, the opposite has happened.
“Some people say to me, Nigel, that’s a failure of Brexit. It isn’t. It’s the failure of a sovereign government.”
He continued: “We are not pretending we are going to win this General Election.
“We are a relatively new party.
“This is the first step on our road to 2029. Our first step is to establish a bridge step in Parliament to become the opposition to a Labour government.
“I can’t see Sir Ed Davey offering that opposition.
“Meanwhile the Conservatives are tearing themselves down the middle, especially when it comes to me”.
He went on: “We believe in the family, we believe in the country.
“Our aim is to provide clear, consistent and growing leadership in the course of the next Parliament.
“I believe we should turn this into a mass movement of people… it seems highly, highly likely.”
“We want to have a radical re-think of the way our public services are run, and yes, that includes the National Health Service.
“All we want, is an NHS that is free at the point of delivery, that actually works. How we get there, most people can’t give a damn about.”
“And we want the state to take far less of our money than it is currently doing.”
Farage also blasted the Tories on immigration, fuming that they had promised for the “fifth manifesto in a row” to reduce net migration.
He continued: “One in 30 people on the street have come here in the last two years. We have never seen anything like this before.
“Labour, in their six key priorities, didn’t even mention immigration.
“We believe an overall freeze on net migration is what we need for a few years, at least until we get back on track.
“We are doing what a sensible country would do, recognising that the first duty of a British government is to look after its own people.”
And pledging to pull out of the ECHR, he said: “The only way to fully restore sovereignty and decide who can come in and who can stay is by leaving that European Court of Human Rights.”
“It is completely out of date. It’s not serving the purpose for which we signed up to it 70 years ago.
“We want to be a party that is on the side of working people.”
Blasting Labour-run Wales, Farage said he chose to launch there as there are “higher taxes” and “worse delivery”.
He said: “NHS waiting lists are exactly 50 per cent longer than in England.
“Education has drifted in a lefty, woke, PC, direction. Wales has fallen behind England on education, not that I believe England is any good.”
“And of course the crowning glory of 25 years of Labour government in Wales… the imposition of 20mph speed limits.
“Since devolution, the Welsh have been ignored by the London political establishment and let down by the Labour administration they elected.
“Meanwhile, the Tories have been the official opposition almost solidly since 2016 and have achieved zilch, which probably explains why we are neck-and-neck with them in the polls in Wales.
“So, if you want a picture of what the whole country will be like with a Starmer government and a feeble Conservative opposition, come to Wales and then hear us unveil a better future for all of Britain.”
In the foreword of his contract, Mr Farage says: “The Tories have broken Britain. Labour will bankrupt Britain. A vote for either is a vote for more dishonesty and defeat.”
He adds: “Once and for all, we will take back control over our borders, our money and our laws.”
The first two of the party’s five core pledges are on immigration, as it pledges to freeze “all non-essential immigration”.
It claims the measures will “boost wages, protect public services, end the housing crisis and cut crime.”
The party also claims to be able to stop all small boats crossing the English Channel within 100 days in Government with a four-point plan including pulling our of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The remaining three core pledges ask voters to “imagine no NHS waiting lists”, “imagine good wages for a hard day’s work” and “imagine affordable, stable energy bills“.
Further measures include ditching all net-zero green policies, and ending “woke” policing.
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The Brexit campaigner also said he would legislate for “comprehensive free speech” that promises “no more de-banking, cancel culture, left-wing hate mobs or political bias in public institutions”.
Farage also pledged to stop “sharia law being used in the UK”.