It’s an effort to reassure investors and businesses that Reform can be trusted with the British economy.
It was only last month that his party leader, Nigel Farage, told the World Economic Forum in Davos he doesn’t like banks, would scrap interest payments lenders receive through the BoE’s quantitative easing program, and refused to rule out appointing his own governor to the central bank. Earlier this year Farage stated that he was giving “serious thought” to scrapping the OBR, which provides independent analysis of government spending plans.
In November, Farage and his deputy Richard Tice U-turned on a plan to dish out £90 billion in tax cuts, which was initially pledged in the party’s 2024 election manifesto.
Jenrick will vow Wednesday that Reform UK will be focused on “restoring stability” and “eliminating wasteful spending.” Although Jenrick will claim that the BoE would keep its independence under a Farage government, he will add that the Bank would be stripped of “ancillary responsibilities,” such as considering the impact of climate change, and will follow his leader in having a crack at the institution for “excessive quantitative easing” and “taking its eye off the ball on inflation.”
He’ll say the Bank’s rate-setting committee must have private sector representation, and say the OBR will have to open itself up to more “outside, proven forecasting expertise,” too.
“The OBR is far from perfect,” he will say. “But the impetus for its creation was a desire to instill fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse. Rather than abolish it, we will reform it. We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion,” Jenrick will say today. “We will demand that the Bank is a more open institution, and the private sector better represented on the Monetary Policy Committee.”
