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The Reform Party has held a significant advantage in opinion polls for much of the year, however the party confronts several weaknesses. One key issue is that immigration appears to be its only potential winning issue, whereas on most other subjects, its policy platform is flimsy and its trustworthiness is minimal. Nowhere is this more evident than in economic matters, where the group has already had to admit that the £90bn tax cuts it once promised in its election platform last year are being discarded because they are unrealistic.

Farage's Fiscal Plan

Currently, Nigel Farage is attempting to tackle this challenge with a address in which he will, in his words, “outline our economic plan for a Reform-led government.” According to advance reports, Farage will pledge the group to wholesale deregulation.

Farage will additionally say that, with Reform in power, spending cuts would happen ahead of fiscal relief.

Reform plans to control public spending under control, ensuring that the country's debt expenses come down. Only after that will I cut taxes to encourage expansion. We need to ensure the economy expands.

This represents a huge change from the policies Farage advocated last year.

Party Responses

Previously when Labour and the Conservatives typically overlooked Farage's addresses, but yesterday evening they both put out detailed preemptive criticisms that included further insights than the party's preliminary outline. The Labour Party claimed that Farage would revive fiscal austerity. A Labour spokesperson stated:

Nigel Farage claims he is offering something new – but despite his rhetoric, his proposal would return us to fiscal restraint.

We’ve seen from the councils Reform run that they’ve not managed to provide the savings they already promised and are cutting services and hiking levies as a result. They’ve said themselves that such administrations are a demonstration for what a Reform administration would do nationally – we understand that this is additional hollow commitments and no concrete proposal.

The Conservatives issued a comprehensive paper challenging Reform’s economic policy. In a statement, Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said the party's assurances “fall apart quickly” and that its economic policies are “leftwing.”

Evaluation of Opposition

Comparing the opposition approaches, the Labour Party's austerity allegation is more plausible, particularly because of Farage's intended statements about budget cuts taking priority over tax reductions. The Tory party is seeking to characterize Reform as left-leaning partly because certain social benefit plans are less severe as those advocated by the Conservatives and because the most recent party document included a plan for government-run infrastructure to be run according to a model involving 50 percent state ownership, with the other half being controlled by retirement funds. However this is not an idea that Reform has been supporting in recent times; this aspect of the Tory briefing fails to consider Mel Stride's comment about Reform manifesto promises having brief credibility.

After the speech, other parties will be able to modify their opposition approaches against Reform.

Daily Political Schedule

There is a lot of other activity planned for the day. Here is the agenda:

• 10.30am: Chester's judicial body begins considering a electoral challenge contesting the outcome of the Runcorn and Helsby special election, which was won by Sarah Pochin of Reform UK by six votes.
• 11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform party leader, gives a speech on economic policy.
• 11.30am: Downing Street hosts a media update.
• 1.30pm: Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, and Sir Olly Robbins, senior civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, provide testimony the House of Commons international committee about the operations of the diplomatic service. The session is expected to include questions about the vetting of Peter Mandelson before he was named as ambassador to the America.
• 2.30pm: John Healey, the military affairs head, answers queries in the Commons.
• After 3.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the interior minister, makes a statement to MPs about the Huntingdon railway incident.