Farage sitting pretty as the 'can't be any worse' option

Danny Kruger, the MP who recently defected from the Conservatives to Reform, is billed as head of his new party’s “preparing for government” unit. He held a news conference yesterday at which he declared confidently: “We will be ready.”

- JOHN RENTOUL

He promised that if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister at the next election, “we will have legislation drafted and ready to go”. Those with memories longer than that of a goldfish will remember similar talk from Keir Starmer before the last election. There was talk of legislating on day one; amended to “in the first 100 days” and then to “a bill will be published in the first 100 days”. The flagship bill on renters’ rights has only just become law after 15 months and the Employment Rights Bill is still in the House of Lords.

So why should we believe that Reform would do any better when it doesn’t have any policies and, if it forms a government, it will have a cabinet made up mostly of people who have not been MPs before, let alone ministers or even shadow ministers?

When I say Reform doesn’t have any policies, I mean that Nigel Farage, a week ago, ditched the tax and spending promises on which he fought the last election. That was progress of sorts, because those were promises of tax cuts and spending cuts with lower than Liz Truss levels of credibility.