Reform UK would slash what it calls “highly dubious” environmental protection measures to help fund a £2bn cut to income tax in Scotland if it won May’s Holyrood elections, the party has said.
Malcolm Offord, the multimillionaire financier who was announced as leader of Reform UK in Scotland 10 days ago, used his first major speech to announce plans to realign the country’s tax system – where higher earners currently pay significantly more – with the rest of the UK and institute a 1p-in-the-pound cut across the board.
Despite repeated polling showing Reform UK neck and neck with Scottish Labour 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 no longer represented by the Tories” and “rational nationalists no longer represented by the SNP” to find “common ground” in their support for Reform, but dismissed any prospect of a second referendum on independence in the medium term.
“I say no to the distraction of another referendum, for at least another 10 years, without ruling one out in the future,” he said.
Recent polling for the Sunday Times suggests the majority of SNP and Labour voters would vote across their constitutional preference in order to defeat Reform.
Speaking at a country club near Glasgow, Offord said that a total of 3p in the pound would be cut from income taxes over the first five years of a Reform government.
The party believes the realignment would cost £1.2bn, with £850m more for each 1p cut. Offord said: “The immediate cost on day one of £2bn and that will be paid for by reallocation of the currently £9bn that we spend on highly dubious environmental protections, economic development and 132 unaccountable quangos,” he said.
Pressed on the detail of the proposed cuts, Offord said the party had not conducted a “line by line” analysis yet, adding: “All we can be very clear about is that there’s been a huge amount of overlap, duplication and waste.”
Stephen Boyd, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, described the proposals as “profoundly unserious, almost comically so”, saying he could not identify how Reform UK could come close to the savings it claimed it could make and underlined the “significant impact on public sector jobs and pay going forward” should the proposals come to pass.
Offord claimed to view immigration policy “through the lens of the Christian faith”. Having made reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, however, he went on to say: “Right now, especially in this cost of living scenario, we need to prioritise our own people over strangers. Instead, from Inverness to Falkirk, local people are witnessing priority of services, opportunity and safety being given to strangers, and that is not fair.”
