Reform's welfare pledge is chance for Tory fightback

IT IS remarkable that Nigel Farage and Keir Starmer have decided to go into battle over who can spend the most money on welfare.

- Sam Lister

The two men want to splash around taxpayers’ cash on paying parents to have as many children as they want.

Reform’s leader is positioning himself as tough on illegal migration and generous on state handouts to mop up disgruntled voters from both sides of the political divide.

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, is already so weak despite a landslide majority that he is on the verge of bowing to demands for a bigger state from his restive backbenchers.

It suits the two men to squeeze Kemi Badenoch out of the political fray completely, with both insisting Reform is the real opposition. But the Tories now have a huge opportunity to begin turning around their pretty dismal fortunes, if they finally realise it is time to stop thinking and start doing.

In the Red Wall, the well-heeled Shires and everywhere in between are the aspirational classes who believe in hard work, personal responsibility and freedom.

Farage wants to scrap the two-child benefit cap at an estimated cost of £3.5billion and Starmer is on the verge of actually doing it. If the Government does reverse the policy, it will inevitably lead to tax hikes.

The cap, introduced by the Conservatives, is popular with voters because it absolutely encapsulates the great sense of British fairness.