Farage Abandons £90bn Pledge, Backs Spending Cuts

Reform UK's 2024 manifesto had promised sweeping tax cuts — raising the personal allowance to £20,000, lifting the 40p threshold to £70,000, abolishing inheritance tax below £2m and pledging about £90bn of tax reductions. Nigel Farage has effectively abandoned the £90bn immediate tax‑cut pledge, calling those measures "aspirations" and saying substantial tax cuts must wait until public spending is reduced and markets are reassured. In a City of London speech he prioritized deep public‑spending cuts — naming welfare, net‑zero policies, asylum support, the civil service and public‑sector pensions — and set out a programme of widespread deregulation to make Britain more pro‑business. He refused to guarantee the pensions triple lock and questioned minimum‑wage commitments for younger workers, while signalling modest immediate changes such as removing inheritance tax for family farms and raising income‑tax thresholds. Opponents and experts, including Labour, the Conservatives and the Institute for Fiscal Studies, accused Reform of row‑back and warned the shift risks a return to austerity and that earlier manifesto promises were unrealistic. Farage said the shift is intended to win market credibility and avoid a Liz Truss–style fallout, underlining tensions within Reform between free‑market instincts and the need to appeal to voters in Labour areas.