Nigel Farage has been accused of “conning” voters for announcing billions of pounds worth of policies without saying how he would pay for them.
The Reform UK leader was left stumped when put on the spot while campaigning ahead of the local elections on May 1.
Farage has said his party would reverse Labour’s decision to means test winter fuel payments, scrap the rise in employers’ National Insurance payments and end the changes to inheritance tax opposed by farmers.
In addition, he has said a Reform UK government would also increase the salary threshold for starting to pay income tax to £20,000 a year.
At a press conference in County Durham, Farage was asked by The Guardian: “Do you have a plan for how you’d pay for all these economic plans, and if you don’t do you risk slightly conning voters?”
The Reform leader then gave a long-winded answer which was noticeably light on detail.
He said: “Well, I tell you what. I tell you who’s been conned … in 15 years, we’ve gone from an accumulated national debt of nearly £1 trillion to one of £2.8tn. So has anybody been frank with voters about how they’re going to pay for anything? Let’s be honest about it.
“We have deep problems. The re-industrialisation of Britain, beginning with energy, with oil and gas, will, within a couple of years, produce tens of thousands of well paid – in fact, in many cases, highly paid – jobs.
“And it depends how much time we have, but if we can get our hands on the regulators, the quangos who do so much to stifle business. Every small trader I talk to, no matter what they’re doing, their business, is being impaired by unnecessary excessive regulation.
“So I’m talking about a cultural change, a cultural change and a country in which hard work becomes something that we respect, where work from home in the public sector disappears, where productivity increases, there’s some of your answers. But yeah, we’ve got a huge, huge, huge problem to turn around.”
Nevertheless, a new poll has suggested Reform is on course to gain hundreds of seats at the expense of both the Tories and Labour.
Around 1,600 council seats are up for grabs in town halls across England on May 1.
Among the local authorities going to the polls are those in Hull and east Yorkshire, North Tyneside, Doncaster and Cambridgeshire.
Nearly 1,000 of the council seats are currently held by the Tories, with Labour defending 301, the Lib Dems 230, the Greens 39 and Reform 9. The remaining 147 are held by independents.
According to the Survation poll of voters in those seats for The Sun, support for Reform currently stands at 29%, with the Tories on 24% and Labour on 20%.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “We are living through a period of economic and social decline. Our great country is heading in the wrong direction.
“Labour have broken promise after promise since entering office and voters rightly feel betrayed.
“Reform UK will fix broken Britain, starting on May 1.”
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