Reform UK’s opponents are telling us everything they need to know about how petrified the establishment parties are of Nigel Farage.
Don’t believe the gossip about Reform UK chomping at the bit to cut a deal with the hapless Tories. Just look at the polls, ending the year with Reform still out in front and on course to smash May’s local elections. Why on earth would Nigel Farage tarnish his party’s brand – built upon differentiation and winning over Boris Johnson’s Brexit bloc – by getting into bed with Kemi Badenoch? No offence to the Tory leader (who frankly has a thankless task after her predecessors’ failures) but if voters want a party which grips immigration, crime and the economy, why would they turn to the Tories?
Never forget what the Tories did: record-breaking legal and illegal immigration, soaring debt levels, botching Brexit, a fall in living standards and a flat-lining economy. True, the Conservatives entered office in the midst of the financial crisis and had to contend with Covid. Labour would have cocked both up just as spectacularly. But that must never be allowed to obscure what the Conservatives did or absolve them of their sins.
Net migration was 431,000 in 2024, a decline from sky high levels in 2022 and 2023 (the latter nearly 1 million). However, even the 2024 level was roughly double the average during the 2010s, when it fluctuated between 200,000 and 300,000.
Meanwhile, from the time David Cameron entered office to when Rishi Sunak left, debt as a percent of economic output rose from around 75% to over 100%.
Again, the pandemic! But come on. The rot had well set in. Every time you hear the Tories bellyache about Labour or whinge about Reform having no track record, always refer to the Conservatives’ own record in office.
The Conservative Party royally took the p*** out of their voters: promising lower immigration, more housing and sound public finances.
Instead, we got record-shattering immigration, a housing crisis and more debt.
Yes, changes in personal tax thresholds led to the share of adults paying income tax falling from 61% in 2010-11 to 58% in 2019–20, but folks paying the higher or additional rate of income tax still jumped from 6% to 13%.
All in all, this was a government which failed to mend the economy, failed to police the streets, failed to police the borders, and burdened the country with green regulations.
The mudslinging at Nigel Farage tells us everything we need to know about how petrified Labour and the Tories are, and how little authority either party has to actually attack Reform’s core policies.
Those Tories from 2010 to 2024 failed us. Don’t let the same individuals fail us again.
