LONDON — Reform UK would scrap Britain’s planned carbon border tax if it wins power, the party’s business and trade chief Richard Tice has said.
Speaking to POLITICO on Tuesday, Tice vowed to ditch the U.K.’s new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) as part of a broader rollback of climate levies.
Reform would look “to promote oil and gas, but also scrap all these levies and green taxes, CBAM, the whole lot of it all goes,” he said.
Britain is currently drawing up its own carbon tax regime — which would charge importers of carbon-intensive goods a fee based on their carbon emissions.
Ministers plan to link the regime to the EU’s equivalent scheme as part of their wider effort to reset post-Brexit trade ties — in a move designed to shield British exporters from being hit by Brussels’ carbon border tax.
Business groups warn that scrapping the system could backfire.
“It is an illusion that cutting CBAM or cutting carbon prices would have a long-term benefit for U.K. competitiveness,” said Adam Berman, director of policy and advocacy at Energy UK.
The short-term consequence of scrapping the policy, he argued, would be to leave British exporters facing “a substantial new tax at the border on their exports with Europe.”
In the longer term, Britain would be increasingly locked out of key markets, not just Europe, Berman said.
“Major trading blocs around the world are doing the same thing,” said Berman. “In that context, we are going to see a proliferation of CBAMs around the world. China doesn’t have one today, but you can be certain they will implement one at some point in the future.
“India doesn’t have one today, but we can be absolutely certain that it will come as soon as they have a robust domestic carbon price. They will want to protect their industrial base from unfair competition.”
Tice warns EU ‘change is coming’
Tice made clear the carbon border tax would not be the only casualty.
“There are going to be aspects that this government is negotiating with the EU that we will unwind immediately,” he said. “There will be some significant renegotiations in a number of different areas.”
Reform has already pledged to shred Keir Starmer’s EU reset if they get into power — with the EU reportedly weighing a “Farage-clause” to protect the deal from regressing.
Other than CBAM, Tice pointed to several aspects of the reset, including the agri-food deal, Erasmus participation, and the SAFE loan program for defense procurement.
“They need to understand that change is coming,” he warned.
“We shouldn’t be paying vast amounts of money for SAFE, we shouldn’t be rejoining Erasmus at vast cost for no benefit to ourselves whatsoever,” he added. “We shouldn’t be dynamically aligning with any of their rules. Remember, this is an EU where, even though we’re flatlining, actually, Germany and France’s economies are in even worse shape than our own. Why would you handcuff yourself to a failing economic model?”
‘Pro-British’ procurement push
Alongside the rollback of green levies, Tice signaled a more interventionist industrial strategy at home.
More details on a pro-British procurement strategy will be unveiled next week, he said, centered on a “strong presumption in favor of buying steel manufactured in the U.K.”
The proposed steel mandate would apply to infrastructure including rail, defense, housing construction and public buildings. Tice also said the new mega Chinese embassy should be built using British steel.
Tice acknowledged there are limits to how far such a policy could go. A blanket mandate to use British steel risks breaching World Trade Organization non-discrimination rules — a legal constraint that would need to be navigated.