“If this Parliament goes the distance, you’re going to find that in the last years there’s going to be an enormous deficit where he’s going to either have to find huge savings in parts of government that he clearly isn’t willing to do, or he’s going to have to jack up taxes all over again.
“It leads me to think that there is going to be an early general election, and they’re just trying to brush all of these problems under the carpet beforehand.”
He added: “As you may know, on Monday we set out our alternative to the Budget, which was the most costed and detailed plan any opposition has ever produced. The Tory Party didn’t produce anything at all this time, not even on the back of a fag packet like usual.
“We produced a very detailed proposal. We said that we would find £40 billion of savings in the first financial year from the ballooning benefits bill, from foreign aid, from the quangos, and the out-of-control net zero subsidies. We would use part of that to pay down our debts, to stop borrowing so much as a country, so we don’t go bust, and put the rest into the pockets of hardworking Brits and pensioners.
“We said that we would raise the tax-free personal allowance to 15,000 pounds. We would ensure you don’t pay any tax on overtime if you take on extra hours. We put 250 quid into your pocket by getting rid of the green levies and tax off your energy bills. Collectively, that would be at least £1,300 into the pocket of the average family in this country in the first year of a Reform Government.”
He added: “In the months ahead, we actually have other ideas that we’ll be setting out shortly. But it’s a very substantial package. It will be the biggest set of reforms to welfare in the modern era, more than the ones that Iain Duncan Smith and the Conservative coalition government did back in 2010.
“It’s very substantial. At the heart of two big things, one is that we won’t be paying benefits to people who aren’t British citizens. The Conservative Party is not prepared to say that. I think that shouldn’t be contentious. We have a welfare state, but it’s for Brits, not for people who are new arrivals who aren’t even British citizens.
“And secondly, for those claiming disability benefit, obviously have a safety net for those who need it, like physical disabilities. But we will reassess those with things like mild anxiety. We must be able to get back to the world as it was pre-Covid, if we can do that, because we’re not twice as sick as we were five years ago. If we can do that, then we’ll make the savings that we’ve set out.”
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