Reform promises to raise tax-free personal allowance to £15,000

Reform UK is promising a major increase in the tax-free personal allowance, saying it would lift the threshold to £15,000 within the first 100 days of Robert Jenrick becoming chancellor.

The proposal is being presented as the flagship policy announcement of the party’s conference. Reform says raising the threshold by £2,430 would save most taxpayers £500 a year and take 2.9 million people out of income tax altogether.

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As chancellor, I will wake each morning with one purpose. To make Britain a better place to be a worker than it was the day before.

The party estimates the policy would cost £17.7 billion in its first year and £21 billion by its fifth year. It says the measure could be financed through £80 billion in public spending cuts planned elsewhere.

Jenrick is expected to argue that the frozen allowance has pushed more people into taxation. The allowance has remained at £12,500 since 2021, while Labour has frozen it until 2031, according to the party’s case. Reform says the freeze costs a full-time worker on the minimum wage more than £750 a year and means the state pension will be taxed for the first time under the freeze.

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1.3 million were dragged into paying tax last year alone. Why? Because the tax-free allowance has been stuck at 12 and a half grand since 2021. And Labour has frozen it until 2031.

Reform had promised before the 2024 general election to raise the threshold to £20,000, and Jenrick is expected to say that remains the party’s long-term goal. The proposal comes as Andy Burnham has said voters in his Makerfield constituency are frustrated by the frozen allowance, although he also warned that changing it would be difficult given the financial circumstances.

Reform says its spending reductions would include £50 billion from welfare. Half of the £353 billion welfare budget goes to the state pension, but the party says it would not cut that portion. Instead, it wants to reduce disability benefit spending and remove some benefits from foreign nationals. It also proposes saving £10 billion by scrapping net-zero programmes, £8 billion by reducing the number of civil servants and £7.1 billion by capping the foreign aid budget.

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What a disgrace.