Farage parks his tanks on Starmer’s lawn: Reform leader berates ‘low-grade’ Labour as he vows to scrap two-child benefit cap, restore winter fuel payments and hand married couples tax breaks – but how would he pay for it?

Nigel Farage derided ‘low-grade’ Labour today as he launch a dramatic bid to woo left-wing voters.

The Reform leader trolled that Keir Starmer is ‘terrified’ of the threat from the insurgents as he committed to scrap the two-child benefit cap and fully restore winter fuel payments.

Alongside the moves on two totemic issues for left-wingers, Mr Farage is also announcing plans for a transferable marriage tax allowance.

At a press conference in London, the Clacton MP accused Sir Keir of not ‘believing in anything’ and merely copying Reform’s positions. 

He also took aim at the Tories saying they were ‘finished’, mocking Robert Jenrick for having his ‘teeth’ fixed as he manoeuvres to take over from Kemi Badenoch. Mr Farage also swiped that Boris Johnson will be too busy looking after his latest child to make a political comeback. 

However, Reform is facing mounting questions about how they plan to pay for the extraordinary giveaways, with national opinion polls showing a clear advantage over Labour and the Tories.

Mr Farage said lifting the two-child benefit cap was a way of helping ‘British families’ rather than people who ‘come in and have a lot of kids’.

He argued that Reform was going to make ‘big savings’ in local government and could save £40billion a year nationally by scrapping Net Zero, as well as axing quangos.  

The Tories have strongly backed the two-child benefit cap saying it is ‘fair’

Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe laid into Mr Farage for his ‘cynical’ move on benefits

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the pledges amounted to well over £60billion of extra spending, while Reform supporter Tim Mongtomerie admitted the sums do not yet ‘add up’.  

Mr Farage’s intervention is designed to embarrass Sir Keir, as the PM and ministers wrestle over proposals for cutting benefits.

There have been hints that the government will bow to pressure to loosen the two-child benefit cap, which critics argue fuels poverty. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson suggested this morning changes are ‘on the table’.

However, no firm announcements have been made, and Sir Keir has been unable to spell out how he will widen eligibility for winter fuel allowance, as Rachel Reeves desperately tries to balance the books. 

The speech, framed as Mr Farage’s ‘pitch to working people’, saw the Reform leader flanked by council leaders, mayors and Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin.

Mr Farage went on the attack over the deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, accusing Sir Keir of being ‘a man that puts international courts before British sovereignty’ and the ‘most unpatriotic PM in history’.

‘He and his government are so hopelessly out of touch with working people. They U-turn on everything as they do not believe in anything.’

Mr Farage accused Labour of lacking the will to bring net migration down to zero, and claim Sir Keir’s deal with the EU ‘betrays the very essence of Brexit’.

The married couple tax allowance would exempt one spouse from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income. 

The other would enjoy a tax-free income of £20,000, the level to which Reform has promised to raise the threshold for the basic rate.

At present, workers pay the 20 per cent rate of income tax on everything between £12,570 and £50,270. Critics say that move alone would cost at least £50billion.

Mr Farage said: ‘We need to encourage people to have families and ensure they feel financially able to have them. The collapsing birth rate in the UK, now well below the rates needed, is an existential crisis for our country. The Tories and Labour have sought to solve it with open borders.

‘A Reform government will cut net immigration to zero and do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them.

‘Scrapping the two-child [benefit] cap is just the start. We will, as soon as finances allow, introduce a UK 25 per cent transferable marriage tax allowance.’

He branded the current benefits system ‘perverse’ because it means some can work part-time 16 hours a week but earn less than if they claimed benefits.

Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said: ‘Nigel Farage, a private-educated stockbroker and career politician, has only ever cared about his own self-interest and personal ambition, never about what is good for working people in this country.

Mr Farage’s intervention is designed to embarrass Keir Starmer (pictured), as the PM and ministers wrestle over proposals for cutting benefits

‘Farage wants to abolish the NHS, praised Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget, opposed Labour’s landmark employment reforms and said Jaguar Land Rover, a huge employer, deserves to go bust.

‘His Reform manifesto included billions of pounds worth of unfunded spending pledges but did not commit to the triple lock. Farage must urgently clarify whether he will cut the state pension to pay for his reckless tax cuts.’

Ms Phillipson told BBC Breakfast: ‘We’re certainly looking at it as part of the task force. As I say, nothing’s off the table but this is not straightforward, the costs are high.

‘When we came into Government we had to make some difficult decisions about how we got the economy back on a stable footing, because actually it’s working people who lose out when you have that kind of instability that we saw under Liz Truss, when mortgage rates went up, rent went up as a result of all of the instability and the chaos.

‘But I came into politics to tackle child poverty, to make sure that wherever you’re from doesn’t determine what you can go on to achieve in life, to break that link between background and success.

‘That is the moral mission of this Labour Government. That is what we are all as a Government determined to deliver.’

She added: ‘We’ll set it all out later on this year, in the autumn. I think it’s important that we get it right.