Reform UK Treasury Spokesman Robert Jenrick has said “we want hard work to pay”, following the party’s unveiling of a proposal to scrap income tax on overtime payments.
He told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “We want hard work to pay, and people are sick of working long hours, taking on extra hours, and having less and less, can’t take their kids to the cinema, can’t go on holiday, because taxes are going up, bills are going through the roof. Well, enough.
“Reform is for working people. We’re going to put them first and foremost. And so, under a Reform government, if you do overtime, you will pay no income tax whatsoever.
“It’s a hard work bonus. It’s going to boost the incomes of millions of the most hardworking people in our country, it’s a big change to the tax system, and it tells you exactly where Reform is. We are for working people, not for welfare, for the hard workers in this country.”
Countering a claim that it would cost £5 billion, he said: “We set out £40 billion of savings, not paying foreign aid to rich countries, not giving benefits to migrants who’ve come here, ending the small boats crisis, and above all, getting people who are choosing to be out of work back into the workplace, so no more disability benefit for mild anxiety, all the rest of it.
“As a matter of basic fairness, we’re going to save billions of pounds from the welfare budget and use part of that to give the hardest working people a little bit more.
“Let me give you an example. Say you’re working in the Heinz factory in Wigan, you’re choosing to do an extra hour and a half every day, seven hours extra a week, you will take £1,000 home at the end of the year more, or a newly qualified nurse in a hospital doing an extra hour every day, you will take £1,300 extra home at the end of the year. Real money for working people.”
He added: “Why are we doing this? Because Reform is a radical insurgent party. It’s going to do things differently.
“We don’t want decisions being made by unelected civil servants, the Sue Grays of this world. We want them to be made by the Prime Minister. We’re going to have a strong Prime Minister in Nigel Farage, and I want to make sure he’s got the team around him who can actually get things done and do things quickly.
“The people want someone to grip this country. I think it’s going down the drain at the moment, and they want it to be great.”
