Reform UK is the up and coming party that is now recently being spearheaded by Nigel Farage. On Monday, they announced their manifesto. Check out the key policies here:
Leave the European Convention on Human Rights
Reform wants to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the âforeignâ court in Strasbourg that oversees that international agreement.
The ECHR is an âinternationalâ court. The UK co-founded it and provides a judge and staff. If the UK quit, it would join a club of two nations - Russia and Belarus. Critics say the ECHR interferes in the deportation of terrorism suspects or sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
On terrorism, the Strasbourg court has not ultimately stood in the way of the UK sending suspects to other countries, providing they wonât be tortured. The court did indeed temporarily stop the first Rwanda flight, but only for as long as British judges needed to consider the policy and rule whether the country was safe. Of the 68,500 cases piled up in Strasbourg as of last year, 0.2% of them concerned the UK - and only one of those 127 cases went against the government.
Scrap the licence fee
There is no specific chapter dedicated to arts or the creative industries. Reform UK directs some focus at the BBC, which it calls âout of touchâ, âwastefulâ and âinstitutionally biasedâ. The party would scrap the TV licence fee.
The Conservatives previously launched a review into whether a subscription model, advertising model or other way to fund the corporation would work better. The BBCâs charter runs until 2027 so any changes would be implemented after that.
An extra ÂŁ17bn for NHS
The party sets out an extra ÂŁ17bn a year for the NHS. Thatâs significantly higher spending than any of the three main parties. By 2028/29, the Conservative Party is pledging around ÂŁ1bn extra in cash terms for the NHS, Labour around ÂŁ2bn extra, and the Lib Dems ÂŁ5.8bn extra.
Reform UK says its policies would eradicate NHS waiting lists in two years. This is big talk. Waiting lists for treatments are huge. The party also says the NHS must use the private sector more to help take the pressure off its services and pledges 20% tax relief for private healthcare providers and insurance. Independent health think-tank the Nuffield Trust say this could take money out of the public purse to give to profitable business, encourage NHS staff to move to the private sector and leave the NHS worse off.
Education
Reform UK puts issues and arguments around gender on the first page of its âcontract" of policy proposals. It talks about âdivisive âwokeâ ideologyâ, claiming it has captured public institutions.
Within the first 100 days of government, it pledges to ban what it calls âtransgender ideologyâ in primary and secondary schools. It says this would mean no gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping in schools, and that parents would be informed about childrenâs life decisions.
Reform UK also promises to replace the Equality Act and says it would scrap diversity, equality and inclusion rules.
Freeze on ânon-essentialâ immigration
Two of Reform UKâs core five pledges are to do with migration. The party says it would freeze non-essential immigration, but concedes there would be exceptions with work in healthcare considered essential.
It plans to ban students from bringing partners and children to the UK and employers would have to pay 20% National Insurance on foreign workers (compared to 13.8% for British citizens), though there would be exceptions for the health and social care sector and very small businesses.
Check out the full manifesto here: Policies Reform UK - Reform UK (reformparty.uk)