Reform UK’s income tax plan will cost '£80billion', Labour MP claims

GB News

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has criticised Reform UK's proposal to raise the income tax threshold to £20,000, claiming it would cost up to £80billion according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.Speaking to GB News, Pennycook said his "main take from the press conference yesterday was that none of it added up, and Nigel Farage doesn't add up."FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Let's cross live now to Westminster and talk to the government, to the Minister of State

00:03for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook. Good to see you this morning, Mr. Pennycook.

00:07And can we start by asking you about that breaking news in the past few moments from

00:11Sir Mark Rowley, a significant intervention by him saying that he's in favour of putting

00:16more details of a suspect in the public realm earlier. Is that something that you also support?

00:24Well, I note Mr. Rowley's view on the subject. The government will obviously consider them

00:29the matter carefully. I think police face very challenging circumstances right now.

00:34As your interviewer just said, there's a huge amount that goes out immediately on social

00:39media. There's a need wherever possible to try and dampen down speculation and

00:44miscommunication. So I think this is an area that does warrant review. But in

00:49general, I would lean personally to getting the facts out where possible if the

00:54circumstances warrant. But I think it's a decision for the police in any given

00:57circumstance. Have lessons been learned from Southport, though, where information

01:01was withheld for whatever reason? And when there is a vacuum of information, people

01:06will make up their own minds? Well, lessons will always be learned by the police and

01:13the government will obviously reflect. I think in the case of Liverpool and the

01:17incident, it's an ongoing investigation. I don't want to speculate on that or the

01:21precise circumstances around that. And I think your viewers will understand why. As the...

01:26Jenny Simms, the assistant chief constable of Mersey Police, said the police have got to have the

01:30space to be able to do their job to carry out that investigation.

01:32Can I ask you about the Reform UK press conference that took place yesterday? How do you feel

01:38about Nigel Farage parking his tanks on your lawn? I mean, now talking about reversing the cuts to

01:45winter fuel payments for pensioners and ending the two-child benefit cap. I mean, he described

01:50Reform UK as the party for working people. Isn't that what you're supposed to be doing?

01:55Well, my main take from the press conference yesterday was that none of it added up and

02:02Nigel Farage doesn't add up. All of those changes taken together that he announced run into the tens

02:09of billions of pounds. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, for example, said the proposed changes to

02:14the income tax threshold, £20,000, would cost anything up to £80 billion. I mean, this is spending

02:21something that makes Liz Truss look reasonable. I don't think Farage adds up. I don't think his

02:25party adds up. He's not a Prime Minister in waiting. It's not a serious intervention, from

02:30my point of view. Well, our polling would suggest otherwise. GB News exclusive polling

02:34in the red wall, this is. And they were asked who their preferred candidate would be for the

02:38next Prime Minister. Nigel Farage coming out on top, 27 per cent. Sir Keir Starmer at 24 per cent. Do you

02:45recognise Nigel Farage as a threat? Well, I think he's got a talent for a cheap headline. But

02:54reform are now going to come under far more scrutiny than they have ever faced. And there

02:58will be scrutiny about their spending plans. As I said yesterday, just that single policy

03:03announcement yesterday, and Mr Farage's figures, I think, jumped about in the press conference, and he

03:07admitted they were less than robust himself. When those come under scrutiny, when costs of that

03:14magnitude, up to £80 billion for an income tax threshold change proposed glibly yesterday, I think

03:21when the British public see that level of detail, when the plans are subject to that scrutiny, I have

03:27got faith in their good sense and collective wisdom to see through the circus that is reform.

03:32Can I ask you about your brief housing and planning? You are failing on your housing targets at the

03:38moment, aren't you? Down 8 per cent compared to the previous year. Far below the 367,000 new homes

03:45per year that you, as the government, have called for and that we need in this country, let's be honest.

03:51Why are you failing? No, that's wrong, I'm afraid. We are not failing on our target. We don't have an

03:57annual target of the kind you have just specified. We very clearly and deliberately chose, going into

04:03the election, a 1.5 million homes target over the whole parliament as part of our plan for change.

04:10And that's because we knew we were going to inherit a dire situation when it came to rates of house

04:14building as a result of decisions made by the previous Conservative government, including the

04:19abolition of mandatory housing targets. So we are in a trough. Numbers are very low right now. We are making

04:25changes, including overhauling national planning policy, including the changes we are announcing

04:29today, if I get a chance to speak to them on small and medium-sized house builders and how we are

04:33supporting them, that will feed through, but that we will see, quite rightly, very significant increases

04:40in house building rates towards the final years of the parliament, because we need to take ourselves

04:44out of this trough and step up those rates. OK. Thank you very much indeed, Matthew Pennycook.

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