Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick have unveiled a series of new Reform policies (Image: Getty)

• Reform UK would reinstate the two-child benefit cap if it wins the next general election, Robert Jenrick has confirmed, in a U-turn on the party’s previous stance. The party’s Treasury spokesman said the party’s existing policy was “well-meaning” as a way of encouraging families to have more children, but said it was now unaffordable
• Mr Jenrick pledged to reform the Office for Budget Responsibility, rather than abolish it, and said the Bank of England would remain independent if he were in No 11
• The party will also make changes to the Motability scheme and limit welfare to only British nationals

• Mr Jenrick refused to commit a Reform government to maintaining the pensions triple lock, saying an announcement on the state pension would be made at a later date. However, he dropped a heavy hint that the policy or something very similar will remain
• Nigel Farage named his top team on Tuesday, barely a month after Mr Jenrick left the Conservative front bench, where he was shadow justice secretary. Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who also left the Conservatives for Reform last month, was made her new party’s education, skills and equalities spokeswoman
  

  Reform’s Bombshell New Policies in Full – One Surprised Everyone

  Reform UK has unveiled a series of major policy proposals as Nigel Farage’s party prepares for the next general election, promising sweeping changes to immigration, taxation, energy, welfare, policing, education and Britain’s relationship with Net Zero.

  The announcements have attracted considerable attention because they go well beyond Reform’s traditional focus on immigration and Brexit. The party has attempted to present a much broader governing programme, including measures designed to reduce taxes, change the welfare system, expand apprenticeships and restructure public services.

  Some of the proposals are familiar themes from Reform’s previous campaigns. Others represent significant developments in the party’s programme.

  One proposal in particular has surprised observers: Reform’s commitment to raise the personal income-tax allowance to £15,000 during its first 100 days in government. The party says the measure would take 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether and provide most taxpayers with around £486 in additional tax relief.

  The proposals were presented during Reform’s September conference in Birmingham, where Farage announced a series of commitments intended to form the basis of the party’s first 100 days in office if it were to win a parliamentary majority.

  A 100-day programme

  Farage said Reform would declare a national emergency on its first day in government and promised that ministers would deliver meaningful changes within their first 100 days.

  The party’s official policy platform currently identifies four headline pledges for this period: stopping small boats, raising the personal allowance to £15,000, cutting energy bills by £250 and reducing the size of the university sector in order to fund apprenticeships.

  Farage described the programme as an attempt to demonstrate that Reform would act quickly rather than spend years introducing incremental changes.

  The party says ministers who failed to deliver the promised changes within 100 days would be expected to resign, while ministers who refused to do so could be dismissed.

  That approach is intended to create a clear timetable for the party’s programme.

  1. Stopping the small boats

  Immigration remains at the centre of Reform UK’s political platform.

  Under its proposed Operation Fortress, the party says it would deploy the Royal Navy in the English Channel within its first 100 days in government.

  Reform’s stated objective is to prevent illegal Channel crossings from reaching British shores. The party also proposes Operation Restoring Justice, which it describes as a plan to detain and deport people it considers to be illegal migrants in the UK.

  The proposals represent a major expansion of the role Reform wants the armed forces to play in border enforcement.

  The party has also called for significant changes to the immigration system more broadly.

  2. Ending indefinite leave to remain

  One of Reform’s more substantial immigration proposals is to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) for future migrants and rescind existing awards, while replacing the system with renewable five-year visas.

  According to Reform’s official policy document, future migrants would face higher salary thresholds, mandatory English-language requirements and stricter character requirements. The party also proposes that foreign nationals would have no access to welfare benefits.

  Reform says work visas would continue to exist for critical national shortages, but would be subject to caps and requirements designed to encourage employers to train British workers.

  The party says people with EU settled status would not be included in the abolition of ILR, although it proposes changes to benefit eligibility for foreign nationals.

  The policy therefore represents a substantial restructuring rather than simply a reduction in migration numbers.

  3. The £15,000 personal allowance

  Perhaps the most striking economic proposal is Reform’s plan to increase the income-tax personal allowance from its current level to £15,000.

  The party says the change would take effect at the beginning of the tax year following its first Budget.

  According to Reform’s own calculations, most taxpayers would receive approximately £486 in tax relief, while 2.9 million people would no longer pay income tax at all. The party describes the increase as the largest rise in the personal allowance in British history.

  Reform says the cost would be covered by welfare reform, reductions in foreign aid and reductions in the size of the civil service.

  The party’s longer-term ambition is to raise the allowance further, eventually targeting £20,000 as its reforms generate additional savings.

  The proposal is significant because it places tax reduction alongside immigration as one of Reform’s central economic messages.

  4. Cutting energy bills by £250

  Another headline commitment is a proposed £250 reduction in annual energy bills.

  Reform says it would remove government-imposed policy costs from household energy bills and instead shift the burden of renewable subsidies to general taxation.

  The party also proposes increasing domestic energy production and reversing policies that it believes have increased energy costs.

  Its policy platform says the measures would be introduced within the first 100 days of a Reform government and would put approximately £250 a year back into household budgets.

  Reform also says it supports nuclear energy while opposing subsidies that it argues place additional costs on consumers.

  The party’s energy policy is closely connected to its opposition to the current Net Zero framework.

  5. Scrapping Net Zero policies

  Reform has pledged to scrap what it describes as costly Net Zero policies.

  Farage argued at the party’s September conference that current energy policies were contributing to high costs and damaging British industry. He promised that Reform would reduce energy bills and change the direction of Britain’s energy strategy.

  The party says this does not mean abandoning environmental protection altogether.

  Instead, its official policy says it would remove policies that increase household bills without providing what Reform considers practical environmental benefits, while supporting what it calls sensible environmental stewardship.

  The proposal would nevertheless represent a major change from the current direction of British climate policy.

  6. Reversing the employer National Insurance increase

  Reform has also targeted Labour’s increase in employer National Insurance.

  The party says it would reduce the employer NIC rate from 15 percent back to 13.8 percent.

  To fund the change, Reform proposes introducing a new Migrant Labour Levy on employers hiring foreign workers.

  The party argues that reducing the employer contribution would make it easier for businesses to hire British workers.

  Reform also proposes a Hard Work Bonus, under which employees earning less than £75,000 would pay no tax on overtime worked beyond 40 hours a week.

  The proposal is designed around the party’s broader message that employment and additional work should be financially rewarded.

  7. A new welfare system

  Welfare reform has become another major part of Reform’s developing platform.

  Robert Jenrick has argued that the welfare state should remain a safety net for people who genuinely need it, while reducing what Reform describes as long-term dependency.

  The party says children, pensioners and people with severe disabilities would not be affected by its latest welfare proposals.

  Reform also wants to restrict access to benefits for foreign nationals.

  Its argument is that the welfare system should prioritise British citizens who have contributed to it.

  The policy is one of the most politically contentious parts of Reform’s programme because questions about eligibility, contribution and the treatment of migrants are closely connected to broader debates about immigration and public spending.

  8. AI to tackle benefit fraud

  One newer proposal has attracted particular attention because it moves beyond Reform’s traditional political themes.

  Robert Jenrick has proposed using artificial intelligence to identify benefit fraud and reduce administrative costs.

  Reports suggest Reform believes AI could be used to analyse information more efficiently and identify suspicious claims, while also reducing bureaucracy in government departments.

  The party has linked the idea to a wider argument that Britain has been too slow to adopt modern technology across public services.

  The proposal is notable because it presents Reform not simply as a party of spending cuts, but as a party attempting to use technology to redesign government operations.

  Whether such a system could deliver the claimed savings would depend on implementation, data quality, safeguards and the accuracy of automated decisions.

  9. Universities and apprenticeships

  Education policy is another area where Reform has proposed a significant change.

  The party argues that Britain has expanded university education too far and that too many young people are being encouraged to pursue degrees when vocational training could provide a more direct route into employment.

  At its conference, Reform announced plans to reduce what it describes as excessive university expansion and redirect resources towards apprenticeships. Farage specifically highlighted the need to train more British workers rather than relying on imported labour.

  Suella Braverman has also promoted Reform’s apprenticeship programme.

  The party proposes an Apprenticeship Wage Credit, under which small and medium-sized businesses would receive a 30 percent wage credit for apprentices. Reform says this could save employers more than £4,000 per apprentice each year.

  The wider objective is to shift the education system towards vocational and technical training.

  10. A tougher approach to crime

  Reform’s law-and-order programme proposes tougher sentencing for serious and repeat offenders.

  The party says dangerous criminals should serve their full sentences rather than being released early.

  It also proposes rapidly expanding prison capacity and deporting foreign offenders to their home countries or other countries where arrangements can be made.

  The party has proposed mandatory life sentences for certain serious offences, including child rape, and increased use of stop-and-search powers.

  The overall philosophy is that victims should receive greater priority and that serious offenders should face more severe consequences.

  11. Rebuilding the armed forces

  Defence has also moved higher on Reform’s policy agenda.

  The party says Britain’s armed forces have been weakened by years of reductions and proposes increasing defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035.

  Reform says the military should focus on operational capability and readiness and should be prepared to respond to threats from countries including Russia and China.

  The policy represents another attempt by the party to broaden its appeal beyond immigration and domestic taxation.

  12. Small businesses

  Reform has also published proposals aimed specifically at Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses.

  The party wants to increase the VAT registration threshold to £150,000, reduce regulation and reverse what it describes as excessive taxation of family farms and small businesses.

  It also proposes a system called “delay repay” for HMRC backlogs, under which the tax authority would face incentives to process cases more efficiently.

  Reform says Britain’s 5.7 million small and medium-sized enterprises employ approximately 16.9 million people, making them central to its economic strategy.

  The policy that surprised many observers

  Among the various proposals, the £15,000 personal allowance may be the policy that most clearly demonstrates how Reform is trying to broaden its economic appeal.

  Immigration and border control have long been associated with the party.

  A substantial income-tax cut, however, places household finances directly at the centre of the programme.

  The proposal also creates an important political test: whether Reform can convince voters that major tax reductions can be financed through welfare reform, civil-service reductions and other savings without creating unacceptable pressure elsewhere in the public finances.

  The party says its programme is fully costed.

  That claim will inevitably face scrutiny from economists, political opponents and independent fiscal analysts as the next election approaches.

  More policies could follow

  Reform’s programme is still developing.

  A Reform-linked thinktank, the Centre for a Better Britain, has been preparing a major economic document that reportedly includes proposals for substantial tax reductions, including the abolition of inheritance tax and the eventual phasing out of capital gains tax. The document is separate from Reform UK’s formal policy platform, so these proposals should not automatically be treated as official party commitments.

  This distinction is important.

  Reform is producing an increasingly large body of policy material, but not every proposal associated with people or organisations close to the party necessarily represents an adopted manifesto commitment.

  The party’s official policy page remains the clearest source for its formally stated positions.

  A rapidly expanding programme

  The latest announcements demonstrate how far Reform UK’s policy agenda has expanded.

  The party is proposing changes to immigration status, welfare eligibility, taxation, energy, education, policing, defence and public administration.

  Its first-100-days programme is particularly significant because it gives voters a concrete timetable against which Reform says a future government could be judged.

  Whether these proposals could all be implemented within that timetable would depend on parliamentary approval, legal challenges, administrative capacity and the state of the public finances.

  For now, however, Reform has clearly attempted to move beyond being defined by a single issue.

  The party’s current programme combines strict immigration proposals with tax cuts, welfare reform, energy-policy changes, expanded defence spending, prison construction, apprenticeship incentives and greater use of artificial intelligence in government.

  The most surprising element for some observers may therefore not be any individual policy, but the breadth of the programme itself.

  Reform is presenting itself with a much wider governing agenda than it had in its earlier political incarnations.

  Whether voters ultimately support those proposals will depend on how they assess the costs, benefits and practical consequences of each policy. But one thing is clear: Reform UK is now building a detailed programme that reaches into almost every major area of British domestic policy, and its September 2026 conference has provided one of the clearest indications yet of what a Reform government says it would attempt to do during its first 100 days.