How Nigel Farage would fill Reeves’ £25B black hole | UK | News

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to unveil a bold proposal on Tuesday calling for a massive £25 billion cut to the foreign aid budget. He argues that the move would allow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to close the public finance deficit without raising taxes. The controversial plan also includes increasing NHS fees for immigrants.

Ms Reeves made a U-turn on plans to raise income tax in the 26 November Budget last week, wary of the backlash that would result from breaking Labour’s manifesto commitments.

However, it is expected to raise taxes next week through smaller adjustments and freezing tax thresholds.

Reform calls for cuts to ‘unfair’ payments to foreigners

The reform will propose cutting a range of “unfair” payments to foreigners, including the development budget, NHS surcharges and Universal Credit (UC) payments, as an alternative to tax increases.

Mr Farage and the party’s policy chief, Zia Yusuf, will argue for the aid budget to be cut by a staggering 90 per cent to just £1bn. This major reduction would effectively eliminate almost all bilateral aid programs while preserving some multilateral commitments to the UN and World Bank.

The reform estimates the cut would deliver a £10bn boost; That’s around half the amount Ms Reeves expects to find after the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) updated forecast next week.

Farage demands tripling of migrant healthcare fee

Mr Farage will also call for the immigration health surcharge paid by immigrants on short-stay visas in the UK to be almost tripled to £2,718.

But Reform argues that the surcharge should be increased to the average annual cost of treatment for any person in England, which is significantly higher, and that migrants applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status should pay the charge for the first time.

The party says the policy would raise £5bn and further savings could be made from its policies to reform disability payments, ban immigrants from claiming UC and deport foreign-born criminals.

In an article in the Telegraph, Mr Youssef harshly criticized “a political class that repeatedly insists that British people tighten their belts while continuing to write a blank cheque to the rest of the world”.

Reform will highlight contentious foreign aid projects

The reform is also expected to highlight examples of foreign aid projects, including a £52 million “road to nowhere” in Guyana and more than £100 million for family planning services in Pakistan, first revealed by The Telegraph in October.

The party’s proposals would effectively end the “unaffordable luxury” of the UK’s direct aid payments to other countries.

It is stated that the remaining £1 billion will be used to “support the UK’s interests abroad”, create a “flash fund for real disaster relief” and maintain commitments made to the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Starmer faces criticism from Labor MPs and charities over aid target cuts

Sir Keir Starmer faced backlash from some Labor MPs and charities earlier this year; It reduced the previous aid target from 0.5 percent of gross national income to 0.3 percent by 2027 to cover the increase in the defense budget.

Mr Yusuf said he intended Reform’s intervention to be a genuine policy proposal that could be adopted by Ms Reeves.

“If [she] If it took these measures tomorrow it could save or raise £25bn this year alone; “This is enough to close the fiscal black hole without hitting working families with further tax increases,” he said.

Reeves fine-tunes tax and spending plans ahead of Budget announcement

As Reform prepares to unveil her plan at a news conference on Tuesday morning, Ms Reeves is making adjustments to her tax and spending plans ahead of next Wednesday’s announcement.

He has already ruled out increasing income tax rates, which his team hinted would be required following better-than-expected forecasts from the OBR last week.

The watchdog’s latest report suggests Ms Reeves will need to find £20bn over the next five years to balance this year’s budget and will need to find more to maintain a wider range of “headroom” which she hopes will reassure bond markets.