Nigel Farage has declared Britain is heading for a snap election in May and that Reform UK will campaign as a champion of pensioners, as he targeted voters in the Labour heartland seat of Redcar.
The Reform leader claimed Labour is chasing the votes of urban graduates but warned that pensioner poverty remained a "real problem" as he pledged to keep a key safeguard against destitution in old age.
Triple lock pledge
Labour leader Andy Burnham last week said Labour would end the pensions triple lock in its present form as he unveiled plans for a National Care Service. Under Labour's plans, the state pension will no longer ratchet up each year in line with earnings if these rise faster than inflation or 2.5%.
Mr Farage told the Express: "We've decided as a priority we should keep it. Westminster is obsessed with getting rid of it… We are saying we would rather cut the foreign aid budget; we'd rather cut the cost of migrant hotels; we'd rather cut net zero costs than cut pensioners' pay."
Accusing Labour of chasing the support of younger Britons, he said: "I think they've gambled that not many pensioners vote for them anyway. They're going for the younger, metropolitan, university-educated, urban classes. That is now the Labour vote."
Mr Farage said the argument for keeping the triple lock came down to one word: "Fairness." He said: "We are a party for people who work and people who have worked… You put in, you deserve to get something out."
Redcar campaign trail
Mr Farage said he had "no confidence" in Mr Burnham's plans for a National Care Service and pledged that under a Reform UK Government pensioners "won't be worse off".
The veteran Brexiteer took his message to Redcar – a key Red Wall seat won by Boris Johnson in 2019 but which switched back to Labour. "The Tories don't exist in these seats anymore," he said. "They are not competitive. It will be us against Labour."
Attacking the claim that Mr Burnham is the "king of the North", he said: "Well, he may well be in parts of Manchester and parts of Liverpool. I don't believe it extends over here. I just don't."
EU referendum challenge
The former UKIP leader does not expect Mr Burnham will pursue a radically closer relationship with the European Union, despite a conference speech which fuelled speculation that rejoining could be back on the agenda soon. Mr Farage said that if the UK was in the EU it would not be possible to cut VAT on essential utilities or save Britain's steel industry.
"I don't think Burnham is quite the fanatical Europhile that many in his party are," he said. "I think he's saying what he's saying to try and put together a sort of Left-wing coalition of voters in the country. Why would you rejoin a group of countries that are doing even worse than we are?"
He pointed to the rise in support for Right-wing parties in Europe, saying: "Marine Le Pen's going to be President of France, the AfD are winning everything in Germany, Giorgia Meloni is the Prime Minister of Italy – I mean, these are, according to Burnham, far Right."
But he would relish the challenge of fighting another in-out referendum. He said: "Oh, bring it on! In a sense, last week Burnham put rejoining the EU back on to the political front burner. That, for me personally and for Reform, is manna from heaven. And the Tories can't fight on this because they made a mess of it."
He is also looking forward to a general election campaign, despite Mr Burnham stamping on suggestions the country may go to the polls early. "It's coming in May," he said. "You watch."
Message to pensioners and Budget warning
He had a simple message for pensioners weighing up whether to vote Reform or Conservative. "How much of a gamble are we?" he said. "Come on, the Conservatives bankrupted us… Who opened the door to immigration on a scale that Labour themselves could never have contemplated? Who put net zero into law, making bills expensive?"
Mr Farage insisted the Tories, who are holding their annual conference in Birmingham, have no chance of taking power. He said: "They can't win the election, because in the Midlands and North, in Wales, in much of Scotland, they're gone."
With the October 28 Budget looming, he gave a scathing verdict on the state of the public finances. "The tax burden has massively increased as the state's increased, as benefits have exploded, and let's face it, economically, we're going down the drain," he said.
A key worry is the departure of wealth-creating Britons: "The exodus of our biggest taxpayers continues week on week on week," he warned. "It's almost like Labour are cheering, 'Hooray, the rich are all leaving.' Well, you know what that means? Everybody else has to pay more. It is absolute stupidity. This Budget will be more taxes on savers, more taxes on workers."
Pushing for a change in direction, he said: "We have to start increasing productivity. Our pledge of no tax on overtime is to try and get productivity to increase. Our culture, our attitude towards work, making money, having successful people needs to change."
When asked if he would have left Britain if he were not in politics, he said: "It's a very good question. I doubt it, because I've got four grown-up children and grandkids … But I'd be tempted."
