Reform says it would cut green policies to fund £2bn income tax cut in Scotland | Reform UK
Reform UK would cut what it calls “highly questionable” environmental protection measures to help fund a £2 billion cut to income tax in Scotland if it wins May’s Holyrood election, the party has said.
Malcolm Offord, the multi-millionaire financier who was announced as head of Reform UK in Scotland 10 days ago, used his first major speech to announce plans to realign the country’s tax system – where high earners currently pay much more – with the rest of the UK and introduce a 1p per pound cut across the board.
Despite repeated polls showing the British Reform Party neck-and-neck with Scottish Labor for second place behind the Scottish National Party, Offord claimed May’s election was a “two-horse race” between his party and the nationalists.
He urged “moderate unionists who are no longer represented by the Conservatives” and “rational nationalists who are no longer represented by the SNP” to find “common ground” in their support for reform, but ruled out any prospect of a second independence referendum in the medium term.
“I say no to the distraction of another referendum, for at least another 10 years, without ruling out the possibility of it in the future,” he said.
A recent Sunday Times poll suggests that the majority of SNP and Labor voters would vote their constitutional preference to defeat the Reform Party.
Speaking at a country club near Glasgow, Offord said a total of 3p in the pound would be cut from income tax in the first five years of a Reform government.
The party estimates that realignment would cost £1.2 billion, with £850 million more for every 1p reduction. Offord said: “The immediate cost from day one is £2bn and will be paid for by repurposing the £9bn we are currently spending on highly questionable environmental protections, economic development and 132 inexplicable quangos,” he said.
Asked about the detail of the proposed cuts, Offord said the party had not yet carried out a “line by line” analysis, adding: “All we can be very clear is that there has been a huge amount of overlap, duplication and waste. »
Stephen Boyd, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, described the proposals as “deeply unserious, almost comical”, saying he could not understand how Reform UK could come close to the savings it claimed to make and highlighted the “significant impact on public sector jobs and wages in the future” if the proposals were adopted.
Offord claimed to view immigration policy “through the prism of Christian faith.” After referencing the parable of the Good Samaritan, he added: “Right now, especially in this cost of living scenario, we need to prioritize our own people over outsiders. Instead, from Inverness to Falkirk, local people are seeing services, opportunities and security prioritized over outsiders, and that’s not fair.”
