Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that if the Chancellor adds 2p to a pint of beer in the Budget it will be “another hammer blow” for pubs.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “On beer taxes, it’s worth reminding ourselves that George Osborne relentlessly put up beer taxes, and I mean relentlessly. Whilst at the same time, the big supermarkets were selling great big packs of tinned beer and lager that you could drink at home.
“There seems to be a total lack of connection from a government, a cabinet of 24 men and women, not one of whom has ever run or worked in private business. They see it as a cash cow, but actually they’re killing something that is culturally very much a sort of centrepiece of our country.
“I’m a great believer that every pub is a parliament. It’s where communities come together. It’s where they discuss things. And 2p may not sound like a lot, but it’s just yet another hammer blow, I’m afraid, for British pubs.”
Asked about the Prime Minister blaming Brexit for the small boats crisis, he said: “It’s not true. Leaving the European Union made us a sovereign country with the ability to make its own decisions. It’s just that the Tory government chose not to use those freedoms, and the Labour government has no intention of using those freedoms.
“Think about the small boats. The Mediterranean has seen far more boats cross than ever came to us. Stupidly, idiotically, countries like Germany and Spain, in the last five years, have given EU citizenship to three quarters of a million people who entered Europe illegally, and I’m talking about Afghans, I’m talking about Eritreans, I’m talking about Iranians, Iraqis.
“Three quarters of a million now have EU passports. With free movement, they can all come to this country. So Burnham is wrong. He is being misleading. He is being dishonest. And remember, this is a man who five months ago was elected for Makerfield, telling the Leave-voting seat he would not reopen these debates.
“And this, a government elected with a massive majority two and a half years ago, who said very clearly, we would not re-enter the single market, the customs union, or contemplate the free movement of people. This is a complete breach of the promises made by Burnham, made by this government in his last manifesto, and it is a betrayal of what people voted for in 2016, which amazingly, Andy Burnham in December 2016, said that free movement had damaged our lives and made us poorer by compressing wages.
“What you’ve got here is a prime minister who tells the audience what he thinks they want to hear at a given moment in time, rather than somebody actually driven by principle.
“On the 20th of November, there is a major summit taking place in Brussels between our government and EU governments. We understand from The Times today that already we are negotiating how free movement might work in the future. And I would say this: this government has no right to negotiate, and certainly no right to agree to anything, because it hasn’t got a mandate to do so.
“We’re supposed to be a democratic country, and if that’s the route he wants to go down, then he must put it to a general election as soon as possible.”
On his party’s recent poll numbers, Farage said: “It depends where you look and it depends a bit who does the polling. I remember this happening back in May of this year, ahead of the local elections, and we exceeded some polls by 6%.
“Look, there has been an absolutely relentless, unending establishment assault and attack on me and on Reform that has gone on for several months, and that has made some of our supporters just back away a little bit and wonder, ‘You know, what is going on, what is true, and what is not’.
“What I would say is this: if this prime minister is taking us into a direction where the main centre of debate at the next general election is going to be Europe and immigration, then bring it on, I say, because I’m the only leader that’s been clear and consistent for 30 years on these subjects and will deliver.
“So you know what? You get ebbs and flows in political fortunes. You get ebbs and flows in personal relationships. That’s life. Reform has troughed over the course of the last few weeks, and I think there’s a big audience out there waiting to hear from us again.”
