Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)

Reform MP Danny Kruger is leading the party’s preparations for government (Image: Getty)

Reform MP Danny Kruger, who is leading the party’s Preparing for Government Unit, said: “As Keir Starmer appoints his third Cabinet Secretary in 18 months – from a pool of senior civil servants who have presided over broken Britain – Reform UK is announcing it will break up this role and restore meaningful political accountability at the top of government.

“The Cabinet Secretary currently does three distinct jobs: operational management of the Cabinet and Cabinet committees, leadership of the 500,000-strong Civil Service, and chief adviser to the Prime Minister.

“Separating these roles and putting the right people into them is a vital precondition for restoring good government to Britain.”

Dame Antonia succeeds Sir Chris Wormald, who was forced out last week after just 14 months in the job as the Prime Minister battles to remain in power.

Her expected appointment had raised eyebrows after allegations that she had been previously spoken to about her management style.

Reform UK Announces Major Change If Nigel Farage Enters No 10

Reform UK has unveiled a sweeping programme of changes that it says would begin almost immediately if Nigel Farage entered Downing Street, with the party promising to use its first 100 days in government to reshape immigration, taxation, energy policy, welfare, the civil service and the machinery of government.

The proposals represent a significant expansion of Reform UK’s political programme. Rather than presenting change as a long-term ambition, the party is increasingly framing its agenda around what it calls a “First 100 Days” plan, under which ministers would be expected to deliver specific measures shortly after taking office.

Reform’s official policy platform says that ministers who fail to deliver the party’s promised changes within 100 days would be expected to resign, while ministers who refused to resign could be dismissed.

Farage has also told Reform supporters that his party would declare a national emergency in order to accelerate its programme, including cancelling parliamentary recesses if necessary.

A government built around the first 100 days

The idea behind Reform UK’s latest strategy is straightforward: a Farage government would attempt to demonstrate immediately that it was governing differently from previous administrations.

At the party’s September conference, Farage presented the first 100 days as a test of whether Reform could turn its campaign promises into government action.

Among the commitments highlighted by the party are stopping small-boat crossings, cutting energy bills, increasing the income-tax personal allowance to £15,000 and changing the structure of higher education in favour of apprenticeships.

The proposals would require legislation, administrative changes and, in several cases, negotiations with other institutions.

That means the political significance of Reform’s announcement is not simply the individual policies themselves. It is also the proposed speed and scale of implementation.

A major overhaul of immigration policy

Immigration is at the centre of Reform UK’s programme.

The party’s Operation Fortress policy proposes deploying the Royal Navy and other relevant authorities in the English Channel to intercept migrant boats and return people to France or Belgium under escort. Reform says the objective would be to stop illegal Channel crossings within its first 100 days in government.

The party also proposes a separate five-year programme called Operation Restoring Justice, under which it says illegal migrants currently in the UK would be identified, detained and deported.

Reform’s policy documents also propose leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and repealing the Human Rights Act as part of this wider immigration strategy.

These proposals would represent major changes to Britain’s current legal and immigration framework. Their implementation would therefore depend on Parliament, domestic courts, international obligations and agreements with other countries.

Farage has nevertheless presented the issue as one of the central tests of his proposed government.

Welfare would also be transformed

Another major part of Reform UK’s programme concerns welfare.

The party says its objective is to reduce welfare spending, encourage more people into work and give priority to British citizens within the benefits system.

Reform’s policy platform says foreign nationals would no longer be eligible for welfare benefits, while foreign nationals of pension age who had made sufficient National Insurance contributions would continue to receive the state pension.

The party has also promised a wider overhaul of sickness and disability benefits.

Robert Jenrick, one of the party’s senior figures, has been tasked with developing major welfare reforms as part of the first-100-days programme.

The political debate over these proposals is likely to be intense because changes to welfare affect millions of households and involve complicated questions about eligibility, contributions, disability support and legal rights.

Reform presents the measures as a way of reducing dependency and controlling public expenditure. Critics argue that substantial welfare reductions could affect vulnerable people. Those competing arguments would ultimately have to be tested against the detailed legislation and financial impact of any future government.

Tax cuts for workers

Reform UK is also promising significant changes to the tax system.

One of its clearest commitments is to increase the personal allowance from its current level to £15,000.

According to Reform, the measure would provide £486 of tax relief to most taxpayers and remove around 2.9 million people from income tax altogether. The party says the policy would be funded through its wider welfare reforms, reductions in foreign aid and changes to the civil service.

Reform also proposes reducing employer National Insurance contributions from 15% to 13.8%, while introducing what it calls a Migrant Labour Levy.

Another proposal, the Hard Work Bonus, would remove income tax on overtime worked beyond 40 hours a week for employees earning below £75,000.

These measures form part of Farage’s broader argument that taxation should reward employment and additional work.

However, the economic effect would depend on the detailed design of the policies, their cost and how the government replaced any lost tax revenue.

The £250 energy-bill promise

Energy is another area where Reform says households would notice an immediate change.

The party has pledged to reduce energy bills by £250 a year by removing government-imposed policy costs from bills and changing the way renewable-energy subsidies are funded. It says it would also increase domestic energy production and support nuclear power.

Farage repeated the £250 pledge during his September conference speech.

Reform describes the policy as part of a wider effort to reduce the cost of living and change Britain’s approach to Net Zero.

The party has pledged to scrap what it considers costly Net Zero policies while retaining what it describes as sensible environmental measures.

This would amount to a substantial change in energy policy, particularly because successive governments have used subsidies, regulation and taxation to encourage the transition toward lower-carbon energy.

Reform’s challenge to the civil service

Perhaps less visible to the public, but potentially just as significant, are Reform’s proposals for the machinery of government.

A policy paper published by Danny Kruger proposes abolishing the Cabinet Office and replacing it with a new Office of the Prime Minister.

Under the proposal, the Prime Minister’s Office would have responsibility for setting government priorities, coordinating policy and monitoring delivery.

Reform also proposes creating a new Department of the Civil Service focused on reducing headcount, increasing the use of artificial intelligence and changing recruitment and management arrangements.

The party says ministers should have greater powers over appointments and dismissals within government.

This reflects a broader argument within Reform that elected politicians should have greater control over the permanent machinery of government.

If implemented, such changes could significantly alter the relationship between ministers and civil servants.

A confrontation with Parliament and the courts?

Farage has also proposed unusually forceful measures to ensure his government could pass its programme.

At the September conference, he said a Reform government would cancel parliamentary recesses if necessary and keep Parliament sitting for extended periods until the required legislation had been passed.

He also raised the possibility of appointing hundreds of new peers if the House of Lords blocked his programme. Another option mentioned was holding a referendum on the future composition of the Lords.

Farage also said a Reform government would seek to remove the ability of judges to rely on what he described as outdated conventions and would withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

These proposals raise constitutional questions that go beyond ordinary policy disagreements.

The House of Lords, the judiciary, Parliament and the executive each have different constitutional roles, and any attempt to alter those relationships would require detailed legislation and would generate substantial political debate.

The NHS would remain publicly funded

Despite the breadth of its proposed reforms, Reform says the NHS would remain free at the point of use.

Its policy programme proposes redirecting money from administrative functions towards frontline healthcare and increasing domestic training for doctors and nurses.

The party argues that Britain should become less dependent on recruiting medical staff from overseas.

This connects the NHS proposal to Reform’s broader immigration strategy, which seeks to reduce reliance on foreign labour while increasing domestic training.

What would a Farage government actually change?

The scale of Reform UK’s programme is therefore much broader than immigration alone.

If implemented as currently described, a Reform government would seek to change:

• immigration and asylum policy;
• the treatment of illegal Channel crossings;
• welfare eligibility and spending;
• income taxation;
• employer National Insurance;
• energy pricing and Net Zero policy;
• university funding;
• apprenticeship provision;
• civil-service management;
• the structure of central government;
• criminal sentencing;
• defence spending; and
• Britain’s constitutional relationship with courts and the House of Lords.

Reform’s official platform says defence spending would eventually reach 3.5% of GDP by 2035, while the party also proposes major investment in military capability and readiness.

Taken together, these policies represent a programme aimed not simply at changing individual government departments but at changing how the British state operates.

The question of implementation

The central issue, however, is that these remain political proposals and commitments rather than measures already enacted by a Reform government.

Winning an election would not automatically make every pledge law.

Some measures could potentially be introduced through executive decisions or administrative changes, while others would require primary legislation and parliamentary approval. Constitutional changes could be particularly complicated.

The House of Lords could become an important factor, as could the courts and Britain’s international obligations.

Reform itself acknowledges that its proposed changes could face institutional resistance. Farage has therefore presented the first 100 days as a period in which his government would seek to move rapidly rather than gradually.

For voters, the significance of the announcement lies in the breadth of that proposed transformation.

Nigel Farage has spent decades arguing that Britain’s political system needs fundamental change. Reform UK’s latest programme provides a much more detailed picture of what the party says it would attempt if Farage reached No 10.

The proposals cover everything from the Channel and welfare payments to tax rates, energy bills, universities, the NHS and the structure of Whitehall.

Whether those measures could all be delivered within 100 days would depend on parliamentary arithmetic, legal challenges, administrative capacity, international negotiations and the financial assumptions behind the programme.

But one point is already clear from Reform UK’s latest strategy: a Farage government would not be presented as a continuation of existing Conservative or Labour policy.

Instead, Reform is proposing a rapid programme of institutional and policy change, with the first 100 days intended to demonstrate whether its promises can be translated from opposition politics into government.

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