PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Reform Party leader Nigel Farage outlined policy proposals, including scrapping a two-child benefit cap, increasing tax breaks for married couples, and raising the income tax threshold, to support family formation.
👥 Who’s Involved: Nigel Farage, the Reform Party, British parents and prospective parents.
📍 Where & When: Central London, during a speech by Farage.
💬 Key Quote: “These proposals are expensive but we genuinely believe we can pay for it,” said Farage.
⚠️ Impact: Farage’s proposals show he is embracing natalist policies, adopting a Hungarian-style position on supporting citizens who want to form families as an alternative to mass migration in the face of a declining fertility rate.
IN FULL:
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has unveiled a series of policy proposals aimed at supporting families and lower-paid workers, including scrapping a two-child cap on Child Benefit payments and introducing more generous tax breaks for married couples. Speaking in central London, Farage stated his party’s intention to make it easier for people to have children, while also raising the threshold for paying income tax from £12,570 (~$17,000) to £20,000 (~$27,000).
Farage emphasized that lifting the two-child cap, which currently prevents most families from claiming benefits for third or additional children born after April 2017, is not about promoting a “benefits culture” but instead providing relief for working families. Farage estimated the policy would cost £3.5 billion (~$4.7 billion), which is less than the current annual spend on migrant hotels—which he opposes.
Additionally, the populist leader proposed exempting one partner in a marriage from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income, alongside raising the personal allowance—roughly equivalent to America’s standard deduction—for everyone earning from £12,570 (~$17,000) to £20,000 (~$27,000). Farage argued that these measures would strengthen families, stating, “Making marriage a little bit more important” would give children “the best chance of success.”
Increasingly, with the Western fertility rate well below replacement, populist parties like Reform are embracing a measure of state support for family formation, as an alternative to the mass migration pushed by left-wing and globalist parties.
Farage argues his policies could be funded by scrapping net-zero climate initiatives, halting hotel accommodations for asylum seekers, cutting public sector diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and reducing taxpayer-funded quangos.
Farage also addressed other topics, including the winter fuel payment cuts, which he vowed to reverse, and abortion limits, calling it “utterly ludicrous” for terminations to be allowed at 24 weeks when hospitals work to save babies born at 22 weeks.
The speech follows recent electoral gains for Reform, including a parliamentary by-election victory, two mayoral wins, and 677 new municipal councillors. Farage described the party as “the party of the working people,” contrasting with the formerly governing but now “irrelevant” Conservative Party.
