Reform UK discussion

[317 forever]

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

I mean, steady on, Labour are only in with 33.7% of the electorate. And the current PM wasn't voted for. Two Thirds of the population didn't vote Labour.

Purely hypothetical question. IF he is found to have not done anything wrong (unlikely I accept) what stance will you take on him and his £5m? Remember, I said 'IF'. Is it just back to calling him a racist because he wants and end to unlimited illegal immigration, that adds only a burden to the UK.

I guess if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults. Especially if they're an MP.

Andy Burnham must be the first PM for many decades to have received 0 votes at the General Election heralding the start of the Parliament in question?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Andy Burnham must be the first PM for many decades to have received 0 votes at the General Election heralding the start of the Parliament in question?

I suspect the previous time this happened was Alex Douglas-Home in the early 1960s. His was a slightly different case as he was in the Lords and needed a safe by-election to get him into the Commons

 

[edwin_m]

Andy Burnham must be the first PM for many decades to have received 0 votes at the General Election heralding the start of the Parliament in question?

However, he received over 420,000 votes in the 2024 election for Greater Manchester Mayor, which is more direct votes than any PM has received other than Boris Johnson when mayor of Greater London.

 

[AlterEgo]

However, he received over 420,000 votes in the 2024 election for Greater Manchester Mayor, which is more direct votes than any PM has received other than Boris Johnson when mayor of Greater London.

But that was to be Mayor of Manchester, so hardly relevant.

 

[Razorblades]

But that was to be Mayor of Manchester, so hardly relevant.

Maybe votes are like UCAS points, and 420,000 mayoral votes are sufficient to go through clearing and become PM?

 

[adc82140]

To rehash something that's often said:

In the UK we don't vote for a Prime Minister. We never have done. We vote for a local MP, and the party with the largest number of MPs gets the right to choose a PM.

It annoys me every time there's whining about a general election when there's a change of PM. Major, Brown, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak. None of those entered office after a General Election. They all came from a variety of political backgrounds, so there's no grand conspiracy, Nigel.

My feeling is that if Farage became PM, he'd have a massive reality check, and would run off within weeks. I sometimes think bring it on.

 

[jon0844]

I used to think the best way to get rid of Reform and populism would be to let Reform win and prove themselves (as they're doing at council level)... but then I have to remind myself of how much damage he could do in a relatively short timeframe - damage that might not be easy to undo.

Therefore, we really cannot afford to let him prove what we already know will happen. Even after everything goes wrong, his base will support the party and be conned into thinking they just need to wait for everything to get better. Sure, the tax cuts came on day one but it's the nasty Establishment holding back the other things they promised.

 

[jupiter]

I see the Icarus complex playing out with farage. He’s already venturing too close to the sun and is not liking the consequences, but the sun is just doing what it does best.

 

[AlterEgo]

To rehash something that's often said:

In the UK we don't vote for a Prime Minister. We never have done. We vote for a local MP, and the party with the largest number of MPs gets the right to choose a PM.

That's strictly correct but misses the point. Of course we vote for Prime Ministers, they dictate the agenda and MPs are whipped to vote for that agenda. The PM is a pseudo-president.

 

[Yew]

That's strictly correct but misses the point. Of course we vote for Prime Ministers, they dictate the agenda and MPs are whipped to vote for that agenda. The PM is a pseudo-president.

Unless you live in the PMs constituency, you'll have never ticked a ballot paper at a general election with their name on it.

 

[edwin_m]

I used to think the best way to get rid of Reform and populism would be to let Reform win and prove themselves (as they're doing at council level)... but then I have to remind myself of how much damage he could do in a relatively short timeframe - damage that might not be easy to undo.

Therefore, we really cannot afford to let him prove what we already know will happen. Even after everything goes wrong, his base will support the party and be conned into thinking they just need to wait for everything to get better. Sure, the tax cuts came on day one but it's the nasty Establishment holding back the other things they promised.

Can't even guarantee that they'd be permanently thrown out after just one term. Just look at Trump.

 

[35B]

That's strictly correct but misses the point. Of course we vote for Prime Ministers, they dictate the agenda and MPs are whipped to vote for that agenda. The PM is a pseudo-president.

And the last decade has shown how weak that logic is - and how true the convention that the PM is the person who can command the confidence of Parliament

 

[Altnashin]

It was obvious to most people who follow politics with critical thinking that Nigel Farage would win the Clacton by-election.
I also have high confidence that if there is an election due to a recall, he would win again, even if Labour and The Conservatives stand, Restore standing may reduce the majority.
On a side note, I am on Facebook for railway related groups, but I have had Reform and related groups and individuals on my feed.
They almost always talk down Britain, comment on how unsafe British towns and cities now are because of immigrants, all politicians (except Reform or Restore etc..) are (or have) ruined Britain.
What are they looking to achieve, to have everyone cowering indoors so Reform etc.. can have the streets to themselves?
For sources, check Facebook, Talk TV, GB"News" YouTube etc.

 

[AlterEgo]

Unless you live in the PMs constituency, you'll have never ticked a ballot paper at a general election with their name on it.

Of course people vote for who they'd like to be Prime Minister. The idea they all vote blindly for a representative of local issues misses the point and is rather romantic. This is the Reform thread. You think people voting Reform anywhere other than Clacton aren't voting for Farage to be in charge?

Why do opinion polls endlessly track the popularity of party leaders of it's so irrelevant.

And the last decade has shown how weak that logic is - and how true the convention that the PM is the person who can command the confidence of Parliament

Of course they can easily be brought down, but that proves the logic rather than refutes it. Once a PM gets very unpopular their MPs become very worried about their own survival at the next election, because guess what, people in large part vote for the MP based on who the leader is (who will be PM). That's why they rebel much more often and why Britain's pseudo-presidential system - where the PM acts like a president with a set agenda to deliver - but with the constitutional position of Prime Minister, has led to increasing political instability. This is a 30 year trend or more.

 

[Welly]

Harry Farley, Political correspondent and Imogen James

• • Published
    15 August 2026

Updated 16 August 2026 01:39 BST
Reform UK says it would aim to cut about £50bn from the benefits bill and scrap the disability payments system, Pip, if it comes in to government.
Robert Jenrick, the party's treasury spokesperson, said the plans, to be set out in full on Monday, would be the most comprehensive overhaul to the welfare system in a generation and affect nearly three million people.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, external he said the current system is "suicidal empathy" and "a strange perversion of compassion".
Labour said it was "fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people", while the Conservatives called it a "half-baked policy" and another "attempt to distract from" questions about the £5m gift party leader Nigel Farage received.
Reform's plans include making companies pay for any employees off sick for the first two years. Businesses with more than five employees would have to take out insurance to cover the cost.
Reform says this is modelled on the Dutch system and would incentivise employers to make adaptions and encourage people back to work to reduce their insurance premiums.
The party says they would cut the National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid by employers to offset the cost of this measure, insisting the change would be cost neutral for businesses.
In a policy document to be published next week, which the BBC has seen an extract of, the party estimates 2.89 million people would have their disability payments' removed, or modified, under plans to abolish Personal Independent Payments (Pip) for working age people.
The party would also remove the extra health-related payments on Universal Credit.
A new system, called a Health Security Allowance, would replace both Pip and the Universal Credit health element but only the most "severe, enduring and high-risk cases" would receive cash support, the document says.
Other claimants would be supported through a council-run programme to cover what Reform said would be the "verifiable additional costs" as a result of their disability.
To boost available support for people out of work, the party says it would spend an extra £1.85bn a year on interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, physiotherapy, and employment support.
Reform also wants to reform children's benefits, and is promising to align the system for anxiety, depression and ADHD in young people with its changes to the adult system. But this would only apply to new claimants.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj924xvzrr2o
In March 2025, the government attempted to tighten the daily living assessments for both current and future claimants, but was forced to dial back after pressure from Labour MPs.
Jenrick described this as an attempt at "modest savings" gutted by backbenchers.
Last month, an interim report was published by Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms, who has been leading a review into Pip, stating the benefit was "not fit for purpose" and requires a fundamental change.
A Labour spokesperson said: "Reform's £50bn claim is fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.
"Labour is already reforming welfare: narrowing the gap between Universal Credit standard and health rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing £3.5bn in employment support to end the culture of people being signed off and written off."
The Conservative's shadow welfare secretary Helen Whately said: "This half-baked policy is just another Reform attempt to distract from Farage's fishy £5m and his embarrassing underperformance in his pointless by-election."
A parliamentary standards investigation is taking place into a £5m gift given to the Reform leader from a donor before he became an MP, with Farage saying the money did not need to be registered. The investigation was paused after Farage resigned as Clacton MP in response to the scrutiny of his financial backing, triggering a by-election last week, which he won.

Reform proposes £50 billion cut to welfare budget

Will that mean workhouses return to your parishes if Reform takes power?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Reform proposes £50 billion cut to welfare budget

Will that mean workhouses return to your parishes if Reform takes power?

I wonder what proportion of families where mum and/or dad vote Reform will be adversely impacted by this?

 

[Yew]

Whilst I think that this is a terrible idea, and the phrase "a strange perversion of compassion" shows the nastiness in the Reform leadership - especially as no doubt any tax cuts it funds won't go to mere mortals like us, but the wealthiest in our society that are willing to donate to Reform. I do feel that the section quoted below is interesting, though it probably needs to be more nuanced and thought through:

Reform's plans include making companies pay for any employees off sick for the first two years. Businesses with more than five employees would have to take out insurance to cover the cost.

Reform says this is modelled on the Dutch system and would incentivise employers to make adaptions and encourage people back to work to reduce their insurance premiums.

 

[Altnashin]

Reform proposes £50 billion cut to welfare budget

Will that mean workhouses return to your parishes if Reform takes power?

I have seen this "discussed" on many channels and feeds.
What I do dislike in these is commenters calling Reform voters "thick" and poorly educated, I personally do not think this helps the debate at all, and only emboldens Reform supporters, as they say that they are being sneered at by the "establishment".
I am reminded of the "First they came for" writings.
Jaywick is on of, if not the, most deprived areas of England (check ONS, Hansard etc. for source)
I do wonder just how many Jaywick residents who are not working, struggling, disabled etc actually voted for Nigel Farage, I would say they are more likely to be in the 56% or so that did not vote.
If Nigel Farage was a genuine "man of the people" I have never seen him campaigning alongside Jaywick residents, or in Jaywick itself, looking to improve things.
It is also worth noting the demographics of his Clacton constituency, it is over 90% White British (source ONS)

 

[35B]

I have seen this "discussed" on many channels and feeds.
What I do dislike in these is commenters calling Reform voters "thick" and poorly educated, I personally do not think this helps the debate at all, and only emboldens Reform supporters, as they say that they are being sneered at by the "establishment".
I am reminded of the "First they came for" writings.
Jaywick is on of, if not the, most deprived areas of England (check ONS, Hansard etc. for source)
I do wonder just how many Jaywick residents who are not working, struggling, disabled etc actually voted for Nigel Farage, I would say they are more likely to be in the 56% or so that did not vote.
If Nigel Farage was a genuine "man of the people" I have never seen him campaigning alongside Jaywick residents, or in Jaywick itself, looking to improve things.
It is also worth noting the demographics of his Clacton constituency, it is over 90% White British (source ONS)

I don’t know about this election, but in 2016, Jaywick was precisely the sort of place where the Brexit campaign cut through and got people to vote.

 

[Altnashin]

A few years old, but still a good read:

Outside the “London bubble”: listening to views on Brexit and migration in Jaywick - LSE BREXIT

Jaywick is a Leave-supporting village in Essex, and one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Alexandra Bulat (SSEES, University of London) talked to some of the people living there about migration and Brexit. “We voted Leave, right? Then there is nothing else to say about Brexit!” “What do you...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

 

[Morgsie]

The ones impacted by the most are the voters voting Reform.

Their welfare announcements and other parties too regarding welfare leave me worried, anxious and so on as I am in reciept of the benefits they want to target. They go on about Anxiety, Depression, ADHD etc yet they do not see that it impacts people differently and do not see the severity scale.

(Sorry I am struggling wording my point.)

 

[Altnashin]

Another latest from Reform and their supporters is to boycott Vodafone because "they give SIM cards and data to "illegals"
In reality, the charity Care4Calais applied to Vodafone's charity scheme that supplies SIM cards to any charities that register.
That includes places like women's refuges (I thought Reform and their supporters were all for protecting women and girls)
It again shows that these mouthpieces really do expect Reform supporters not to do any basic research (don't trust the MSM, only us)

 

[martin butler]

There will always be some who are always wanting to find someone else to blame for their own poor life choices

 

[SuspectUsual]

It does seem odd that a party that has frequently criticised previous governments for not understanding how business - especially small business - works are now wanting businesses to be forced to cover sickness costs via insurance (I wonder if the insurance providers will be mandated and coincidentally Reform donors???) with a vague assurance of cost neutrality

[EDIT]

Just occurred to me, part of their inevitable “bonfire of regulation” will be an attack on workers’ rights and companies will be allowed to sack anyone they deem to be taking excessive time off sick

 

[adc82140]

There will always be some who are always wanting to find someone else to blame for their own poor life choices

And that is a great summary. First it was the EU. We left that, and nothing good has come of it, so now they move onto 'immigrants".

Nobody is arguing that illegal crossings are a good thing. I would like to see them end, and the gangs behind them dismantled. Nobody is arguing that high streets full of dodgy 'convenience stores' is a good thing. But unfortunately the messaging from Reform is conflating illegal immigrants with legal immigrants. Whether that's deliberate or not I wouldn't like to say.

I work with a lot of healthcare workers from the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. They tell me they are worried about their future, and at times frightened for their safety. I am ashamed to be British when they say that.

 

[gg1]

It does seem odd that a party that has frequently criticised previous governments for not understanding how business - especially small business - works are now wanting businesses to be forced to cover sickness costs via insurance (I wonder if the insurance providers will be mandated and coincidentally Reform donors???) with a vague assurance of cost neutrality

[EDIT]

Just occurred to me, part of their inevitable “bonfire of regulation” will be an attack on workers’ rights and companies will be allowed to sack anyone they deem to be taking excessive time off sick

Reform have previously said they'll repeal the equality act, which amongst other things means employers could legally discriminate against anyone they think may take "excessive" sick days at the recruitment stage, such as the disabled or people over 60.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Reform have previously said they'll repeal the equality act, which amongst other things means employers could legally discriminate against anyone they think may take "excessive" sick days at the recruitment stage, such as the disabled or people over 60.

To be fair, a lot of that sort of discrimination goes on already, because as long as there are multiple candidates who are "good enough" proving discrimination when you don't choose the disabled one is very difficult

The issue is people who become long term sick or disabled whilst in a job

 

[alex397]

Reform have previously said they'll repeal the equality act, which amongst other things means employers could legally discriminate against anyone they think may take "excessive" sick days at the recruitment stage, such as the disabled or people over 60.

Anyone who is disabled voting for Reform is just a turkey voting for Christmas.
I also hope anyone who has a disabled friend or relative also takes this into serious consideration.

 

[GusB]

The ones impacted by the most are the voters voting Reform.

Their welfare announcements and other parties too regarding welfare leave me worried, anxious and so on as I am in reciept of the benefits they want to target. They go on about Anxiety, Depression, ADHD etc yet they do not see that it impacts people differently and do not see the severity scale.

(Sorry I am struggling wording my point.)

I saw a clip of Dicey Dicky Tice bumping his gums on GB News earlier*, saying that the best cure for depression was to "get busy" (or words to that effect). While I don't disagree that it would be beneficial to some people's mental health to have a routine and be earning, the reality is that it's not so simple. We need to be properly diagnosing and treating people before forcing them back into work; a prescription for happy pills and a sick note might actually be fine for some in the short term, but over a longer period of time it's not ideal - people need proper treatment from specialist mental health teams.

Besides, the system doesn't really cater for mental health conditions and despite the opinion of your GP, the DWP "Decision Maker" has more clout, leading to people being forced to look for work when they're not really well enough and all the complications they can entail (sanctions, homelessness and worse). To be fair, this has been a problem with Labour and Conservative governments, but it'll get a whole lot worse under Reform.

Anyone who is disabled voting for Reform is just a turkey voting for Christmas.
I also hope anyone who has a disabled friend or relative also takes this into serious consideration.

My sentiments exactly. This is going to hit a lot of Reform voters hard if the party ever has a chance to enact its policies.

*source link:

3m52s

*Edit*

Here we go...

Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut

Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’

www.theguardian.com

Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’
Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals.
Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts.
The party said the plans were aimed at reducing the welfare bill by a quarter, with personal independence payments (Pip) replaced by another cash benefit that would be restricted to only the “gravely ill and severely challenged”.
It said “lower level conditions” would get support overseen by councils and mayors.
In relation to foreign nationals, the plans extend proposals set out by Nigel Farage last year in which he claimed that banning migrants from claiming some benefits and scrapping indefinite leave to remain would save £234bn over several decades.
Jenrick’s policy paper goes further by stopping foreign-born households claiming universal credit, housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker’s allowance, child benefit, free childcare, free school meals or disability benefits.
The paper says the change would save the taxpayer £21bn a year by the fifth year of the policy, and would also apply to those with EU settled status. However, foreign-born parents with British-born children would still be eligible for child benefit and free school meals.

PIP scrapped, to be replaced by "'another cash benefit that would be restricted to only the "gravely ill and severely challenged'' - how vague. "Lower level conditions" to be dealt with by local authorities (which will presumably be expected to fund any such support).

No benefits at all for "foreign-born" people, although they'll get to keep free school meals and child benefit if their kids were born here - how generous. What about people who are British but happened to be born overseas because their parents were abroad at the time - do they count? What of those who came from Commonwealth countries and automatically have British citizenship, or those who migrated here and have since been granted citizenship?

It's all soundbite and no substance, but what else can we expect from this bunch of charlatans?

 

[martin butler]

Reform, should they ever somehow find their way into power, will only ever be a one term government, such will be the harm done, that it would fracture the country, and society .

Multi-millionaires don't know, and in some cases won't care, about the impact, until the disaffected turn on them, after of course, working their way through immigrants, trans, LGBT peoples first, then when their lives are still bad, the penny will drop that we've been conned,

But the loss of trust between communities will only get worse, as each turn inward to protect their own, Reform, actually might even break up the UK, imagine Scotland saying we never voted for you, and leaving the union, Imagine the Welsh doing something similar, and Northern Ireland if it becomes ungovernable, because of renewed sectarianism being cast off, as being too hard to control?, what are you left with,