The Reform party is just another Thatcherite redux

What exactly does the Reform party stand for? Helpfully, its leader Richard Tice gave a press conference on Wednesday at which he sketched out some of his party’s principles and policies. The millionaire businessman described the Tories and Labour as ‘two sides of the same socialist coin’, citing in evidence ‘record high taxes’, ‘record high wasteful government spending’, ‘record nanny state regulations’, and ‘mass, uncontrolled immigration on a scale this country has never seen before’. 

Sir Keir Starmer, or ‘Starmergeddon’ as he branded the leader of the opposition, was no better than Rishi Sunak. By contrast, Reform had the solutions to the problems bedevilling the country. These solutions were familiar fare. Tax cuts: the personal allowance threshold for income tax should be raised to £20,000. Spending cuts: ‘wasteful government spending’ should be reduced by £50 billion. Cuts to red tape: Tice proposed scrapping ‘thousands and thousands of daft EU regulations’. Immigration controls: Reform wants to see a ‘freeze’ in ‘non-essential immigration’.