Reform’s Britain: A Nation Shrinking in on Itself
Dr Adam North discusses what a Reform Britain would look like.
Britain has always been a nation of contradictions: outward-looking yet protective of its sovereignty, pragmatic yet proud. Reform promises to cut through these contradictions with a “no-nonsense” and “common-sense” programme. Reform offers Britain not renewal, but regression—an imitation of the past dressed as the future. It is not leadership. It is retreat.
Fortress Britain
Reform’s obsession is immigration. In government, they would lock the gates: draconian annual caps on migrants, asylum seekers shunted to offshore camps, even withdrawal from international treaties that Britain worked for generations to shape. This is not a confident nation opening itself to the world. It is a fortress, suspicious and shrinking, one that treats newcomers as threats rather than contributors.
Economics of Fantasy
Reform sells itself as the party of low taxes, promising to slash inheritance tax, raise thresholds, and cut corporation tax. The money, we are told, will come from “waste”. In truth, none of it adds up. What happens when the cuts don’t cover the giveaways? Services already stretched to breaking—schools, hospitals, transport—would wither further. Reform’s economics aren’t a growth plan. They are wishful thinking dressed as populism.
Reform would undoubtably seek to cut taxes by borrowing more, pursuing the hugely successful Lizz Trusseconomic model. The objective would be to appease voters with lower taxes, whilst passing unsustainable debt and deteriorating public services onto future generations.
A Brexit Without End
Reform would drag Britain into another fight with Brussels. Agreements would be torn up, compromises rejected. The cost would not just be economic—it would be diplomatic, cultural, generational. For a country already fatigued by years of Brexit wrangling, a Reform government would promise only more division.
Brexit has cost the UK billions. We know this and just 11% of Brits now see leaving the EU as a success. This should be enough proof of the populist lies of Farage and co, but the myth of the Brexit dividend will continue if they were in power.
Culture Wars Over Common Good
Reform would aim its fire at public institutions: scrapping the BBC licence fee, gutting diversity programmes, rewriting equality law. Instead of solving real problems—underfunded schools, overstretched NHS, insecure work—they would feed the culture war, dividing neighbour from neighbour while the roof caves in.
We have already seen this in action. Andrea Jenkyns vowed to sack Lincolnshire’s county council’s diversity officers—except there weren’t any.
Additionally, there rightly fears over racism within Reform. These fears are compounded by recent news that Farage’s advisor, Jack Anderton, stated that Britain would be better off had it stayed neutral in the second world war instead of fighting Nazi Germany.
Turning Back the Clock on Climate
Perhaps most dangerously, Reform would sabotage Britain’s climate commitments. Net zero would be abandoned, renewables cast aside, fossil fuels given new life. In the name of “common sense,” they would lock us into old industries while the rest of the world moves on. For a party that speaks of sovereignty, this policy would leave Britain dependent on the dirtiest fuels of others.
Law, Order, and Illusion
More prisons, harsher sentences, more police. Reform offers the image of control, but ignores the roots of crime: poverty, inequality, lack of opportunity. You cannot arrest your way to a healthier society.
Fraud and Corruption
Just like Trump’s government in the US, Reform would operate a government ripe with cronyism and corruption. Voters may think that all politicians are corrupt, and some are. However, it is important to recognise that some are most definitely worse than others.
Trump’s family have made more than $3.4 billion less than a year into his presidency, and critics argue Farage’s ties to crypto and Russian billionaires suggest a similar pattern.
Conclusion: A Smaller Britain
Reform UK dresses itself as a movement of strength, but its programme is built on fear: fear of outsiders, fear of change, fear of the modern world. If they ever governed, Britain would not stride forward—it would shrink inward, less generous, less open, less ambitious.
We need a politics of confidence, not paranoia. A politics of building, not barricading. Reform promises the opposite.
