Reform pledges to raise tax-free personal allowance to £15,000
Robert Jenrick told LBC the tax changes will be funded in part by cuts to welfare spending.
Reform UK has pledged to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000, with Robert Jenrick saying the party is prepared to make the tough decisions.
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Mr Jenrick has pledged to increase the tax-free personal allowance in his first Budget, called within the first 100 days of a Reform government.
This would be the largest increase to the tax-free Personal Allowance in history, saving most taxpayers around £500 a year, Reform UK has said.
A party statement has said the move would benefit 40 million people overall, taking 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether. It will also ensure the state pension remains untaxed.
Mr Jenrick has promised to deliver the increase in his first Budget and to hold that Budget within 100 days of a Reform government being elected.
The increase would cost £17.7 billion in the first year, rising to £21 billion by the fifth year of Parliament, and would be funded by £80 billion in savings Reform has already identified.
That includes £52 billion from welfare reform, £7 billion a year by cutting the foreign aid budget, £10 billion by ending net zero subsidies, £7 billion by reducing civil servant and QUANGO headcount.
Reform says they will also raise £10 billion in extra revenue through measures like raising the immigration health surcharge and a levy on migrant workers.
Mr Jenrick told LBC's Matthew Wright: "By doing those things, taking those choices, which are tough choices in many cases, we're able to do this big tax cut for working people because we feel people are hard up right now. They're finding life very, very difficult."
He added: "This tax cut gives people just that little bit extra money. And if we can keep going higher, we will do.
"We want to get this personal allowance up to £20,000 by the end of the next Parliament, but we're promising no ifs, no buts, £15K in the first reform budget."
In his speech at the Reform conference in Birmingham today, Mr Jenrick is expected to say: “As chancellor, I will wake each morning with one purpose.
"To make Britain a better place to be a worker than it was the day before. In the first hundred days of a Reform government, in our first Budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570… to £15,000.”
Reiterating Reform’s long-term plans, Mr Jenrick will also say: “When we can — only when it is paid for in full — I will go further, step-by-step, until we’ve reached Reform’s ambition of a £20,000 tax-free allowance.”
He is also expected to challenge Prime Minister Andy Burnham to match his commitment, saying: “The hard choice for Burnham and for us is exactly the same. It’s either welfare waste, foreign aid and migrants — or the British worker. We choose the worker.”
Speaking at the party's conference in Birmingham yesterday, leader Nigel Farage outlined their plans for the first 100 days of a Reform government.
Mr Farage made it clear that any ministers who do not come through on party promises within the deadline would be out of a job.