NIGEL FARAGE ‘BELIEVES IN THE BIG STATE’ CLAIMS SHADOW MINISTER HELEN WHATELY

SHADOW Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately has claimed that Nigel Farage “believes in the big state” and that Reform UK’s economic plans are not credible.

She told GB News: “If we saw anything from what Nigel Farage set out yesterday, we saw the reason for why we need a Conservative Party. He set out billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments. It was complete fantasy economics.

“He revealed that he is a leader who believes in the big state and the state being the answer for things. And he made completely huge, huge spending commitments, and the ways he said he would save money simply aren’t credible.

“And so what we need is a conservative party, because the Conservative Party is the only party that is arguing for the sort of answers that Britain needs to our problems, for sensible economics, for living within our means, for supporting people to take personal responsibility, for lower taxes, for a strong economy, all of those things that really matter to people, and that is the offer that we want to be able to make people at the next election. Reform is not going to give them that choice, but we will.”

She added: “I think Reform and Nigel Farage should now receive more scrutiny. We know that Nigel Farage likes to say things that are popular, and he doesn’t like to make hard choices.

“We’re already seeing that, and for example, one of the areas yesterday that he talked about was welfare and benefits. We know that the benefits bill needs to be brought under control. The benefits bills, for instance, sickness benefits, going up to around £100 billion by the next election.

“The only thing that Nigel Farage said on welfare yesterday was actually to increase the cost of benefits and to increase the benefits for people who have more children by raising the two-child benefits cap.

“So rather than having plans of how you would make savings on welfare, the one he said was actually to increase that spending. And it’s not easy being in government, and if he’s going to put himself forward as a future party of government, he needs to say how he will make the hard choices that will make the country a better place to live in.”

Asked why new polling puts the Conservatives in third place in red wall seats, she said: “We need
to listen to the message that we got on the last general election. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

“We know that people were not happy and were frustrated with some things that happened towards the tail end of our time in government, particularly after the pandemic and with the inflation we saw from the Ukraine war.

“We know that we need to reflect on that, show that we’re listening and actually do the hard work on what is the right offer to the country come the next general election, which is still some four years out from now, and that’s what people will want to hear from us.”