Reform vows huge income tax cut for Scots costing billions as Offord insists party can remove SNP
Malcolm Offord has suggested some Reform UK candidates standing in the Holyrood election are supporters of independence.
Reform UK will align income tax with England and then cut it by a further 1p immediately if it wins the Holyrood election despite a £2 billion price tag, the party’s new Scottish leader has claimed.
Malcolm Offord, in his first keynote speech since being hand-picked as the party’s Scotland leader by Nigel Farage, suggested that the tax cuts could be introduced by scrapping quangos and abolishing environmental protections.
In the first five years of a Reform government at Holyrood, Mr Offord said, a total of 3p would be cut from income taxes - with a total cost of at least £3.7bn. Despite boasting his party will be “unashamedly pro-business and pro-enterprise”, Mr Offord warned his tax plans would require cuts to economic development budgets.
However, experts said it was “implausible” the tax cuts would not have a severe impact on public services.
The call came as former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman defected to Reform UK in the latest high profile Conservative to join Mr Farage’s party.
At Westminster, Reform UK now has eight MPs - one behind the SNP, which is the fourth-biggest party in the Commons.
In his address, Mr Offord repeated his suggestion that an independence referendum should not be held for “at least 10 years”, but insisted he was not “ruling one out in the future”. But he also appeared to warn that some Reform candidates could be supporters of Scottish independence, in what the Scottish Tory leader warned was “a wake-up call for unionist voters”.
Speaking at the Ingliston Country Club near Greenock, Mr Offord insisted that May’s Holyrood election was “now a two-horse race between Reform UK and the SNP”, despite consistent polling showing John Swinney is on course to remain leader of the biggest party and Reform and Labour are poised for a battle for second place.
Pressed by The Scotsman over whether Reform is the only party able to beat the SNP, Mr Offord said “we can absolutely do extraordinarily well in Holyrood”.
Mr Offord, who welcomed another Tory defector to the party in Argyll and Bute councillor Daniel Hampsey, made a big pledge on income tax ahead of the Holyrood election.
He said: “A new Reform government in Holyrood will cut income tax. Workers and owners in Scotland are paying too much tax.
“The pendulum at Holyrood has swung too far from work to welfare and Reform Scotland will build a new economy which rewards work first and creates prosperity for all.”
Mr Offord added: “Reform will immediately restore income tax bands in Scotland to align with the three UK bands and then implement a cut of 1p below each band with an objective of being 3p below each band in the first five years of a Reform UK government in Scotland.
“This immediate alignment will cost £1.2bn and every 1p cut thereafter will cost £850m each. Therefore, the immediate cost will be £2bn which will be paid for by re-allocation of the £9bn currently spent on highly dubious environmental protection, economic development and 132 unaccountable quangos.”
Asked for some detail on where the funding will come from, Mr Offord said: “We need to find £2bn to fund this tax cut. The total budget for Scotland is £118bn, so that is a very small percentage of the total budget right there.
“I have identified a £9bn pot which sits in environmental protection, economic development and quangos. That means we’re not shutting everything down. What we’re saying is that out of that £9bn, we can find £2bn of savings.”
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Mr Offord admitted Reform has not had a “line by line” look at the Scottish Government’s books to see what would be cut to fund his tax cuts.
He said: “All we can be very clear about is that there’s been a huge amount of overlap, duplication and waste.”
A spokesperson for the Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI), the independent economic think tank, said while it did not have “full details of the costings”, an additional £1.8bn would be required to reach the 3p target and that it was “implausible” that the cuts would not have a severe impact on public services.
“No detail has been made available regarding the cuts that would be necessary as a result of this policy to comply with borrowing limits, or in which areas they might fall”, the FAI said.
“This is a significant sum of money and given the constraints of the Scottish Government’s day-to-day budget, would mean cuts to spending of a similar magnitude.
“We would hope that detailed proposals for these cuts would be made before the election.”
Mr Offord will have raised some eyebrows amongst unionists with his take on independence, refusing to rule out another re-run of the 2014 referendum in the long-term.
Mr Offord’s pitch on the constitution centres around parking the independence debate for 10 years, claiming “the Scottish people have no appetite for the rancour and division of another referendum any time soon”.
He added: “I believe that moderate unionists, no longer represented by the Tories and rational nationalists no longer represented by the SNP, can find common ground and unite around one single ambition; to make Scotland the most successful and the most fair country in the world.
“My appeal to all Scots is to unite around a common vision of prosperity and justice for all now and deal with the constitution later. Reform UK is the only party in Scotland with that vision.”
The Reform UK Scottish leader claimed “it will take 10 years to turbo-charge the economy in Scotland”.
He added: “That is why I say no to the distraction of another referendum for at least another 10 years, without ruling one out in the future.”
Mr Offord, who labelled himself “a rational unionist", said Reform UK’s Holyrood candidates will undergo a “very comprehensive vetting process”.
Asked whether pro-independence candidates will stand for Reform in May’s election, he said: “We do have some nationalists, some SNP, within our group, but not previous MSPs.
“There’s a good number of people who voted for the SNP who may consider independence who don’t want to vote for the SNP any more.
“If you wanted to get an independence referendum in the next 10 years, you wouldn’t stand for Reform.”
Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, argued that “Reform are a gift to John Swinney” over the party’s stance on independence.
He added: “Lord Offord’s admission that there are still nationalists in Reform’s ranks is a wake-up call for unionist voters.
“It explains Reform’s repeated refusal to rule out another divisive independence referendum and why Nigel Farage admits he’s relaxed about another five years of SNP rule.
“Reform fielded pro-independence candidates at the last election and are set to do so again in May.
“The Scottish Conservatives will always stand up to the SNP’s relentless push to break up the UK. Our focus is on growing the economy by cutting bills for households and businesses and tackling the SNP’s bloated benefits bill.”
Scottish Labour finance spokesperson, Michael Marra, said: "Lord Offord - a multimillionaire who for years bankrolled the Tories and backed Liz Truss’s plan to crash the economy - does not have any solutions for addressing the key issues facing Scots.
"Only Scottish Labour has the ideas and vision to deliver for Scotland."
SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said: “Nigel Farage has been candid that he wants to privatise our NHS and we know he couldn’t care less about Scotland – that’s in stark contrast to John Swinney who is relentlessly focussed on the priorities of the people of Scotland, be that our NHS or the cost of living crisis.
“With the Tories collapsing and the Labour Party in utter chaos, the choice could not be clearer for Scotland – vote SNP in May for strong leadership with John Swinney, to beat Reform and sack Starmer, and for a fresh start through independence.”
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