From the Guardian.
Farage claims Reform UK are “on the side of working people”.
We are the party of alarm clock Britain, and we want people who are out there working to be genuinely better off working than they are on a whole range of benefits.
Farage moves on to benefits, and he says this is one reason he wanted to give the speech today.
Referring to the Conservatives (see 9.34am), he says there have been “misunderstandings” about Reform’s policy.
He says he would get rid of the two-child benefit cap – but only to help low-paid couples who are both working.
He also says Reform would cut spending on disability benefits, as set out by Lee Anderson last week.
He says:
We will substantially cut the benefits bill. We will reduce the size of the public sector. We will look as we’ve already started, at public sector pensions, which are a massive liability.
Some of this will be a bit problematic for Farage's voters. His own constituency has the highest proportion of people dependent on benefits (60%) of any other constituency, according to the Telemail, which also has an interesting graph: