Robert Jenrick has vowed to “resign” from his role in the party if he fails to deliver on his policies within the first 100 days of a Reform Government.
Delivering his keynote speech at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, the Treasury spokesman unveiled his plan to increase the tax-free allowance on income tax to £15,000.
Outlining his pledge, Mr Jenrick told the crowd: “Will Kemi resign if the Tories let you down again? Will Andy Burnham? Not a chance. Not a chance in Westminster.
“You fail, you get a peerage – Lord Mandelson. In the real world, if you fail, you’re gone. So hear me. If I don’t deliver this exactly when I’ve said that I will, I will resign. No ifs, no buts. I’ll be gone.”
Recalling his exit from the Conservatives, Mr Jenrick told the conference that he will “not be another politician that makes promises and breaks them”.
He said: “When Rishi Sunak asked me to defend the Rwanda Bill, to promise to you, the British people that it would work, when I knew in my heart that it wouldn’t, to defend the Tory immigration lies, I resigned.
“I will not be just another politician who makes promises and breaks them. It’s about time politics works the way the rest of the country does.
“Politicians who deliver, politicians whose necks are on the line and say what they mean and do it for once. That’s the Reform difference.”
Taking aim at Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Mr Jenrick argued that he is “not optimistic” about what he can achieve in his first 100 days in Downing Street.
He said: “What will Andy Burnham offer when his 100 days are up in October? Will he offer working people a break? Will he come close to offering the change that we need? Well, I’m not optimistic.
“Not because he doesn’t see the problem, he’s not a fool. Burnham knows that work doesn’t pay right now.
“In fact, he said in June that his own constituents’ top priority was to raise the tax-free personal allowance.
“He even claimed that doing this was ‘lodged in his mind’. But within 48 hours of entering No10, he ruled it out. Why?
“Because to cut taxes on work, you have to make choices. You’d have to cut benefits for migrants, you’d have to cut benefits for those choosing not to work, you’d have to cut the foreign aid budget. You’d have to scrap the net zero subsidies. He won’t, but we will.”
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The MP vowed that under a Reform Government, the tax-free allowance would be raised from £12,750 to £15,000 in their “first 100 days”.
He declared: “We won’t need a decade to do it, so here is my pledge to you and to the country. In the first 100 days of a Reform Government, in our first Reform Budget, we will raise the tax-free personal allowance from £12,570 – not just with inflation, not just £13,000, not just £14,000, but £15,000. The first £15,000 you earn is yours. Every penny is yours, tax free.
“£500 a year back for the average basic rate taxpayer. £1,000 for a working couple, three million of the lowest paid – the carer, the apprentice, the van driver, out of tax altogether. No tax on the state pension whatsoever.
“A tax cut for 40 million people. The biggest rise in the personal allowance in its history, and delivered not in 10 years, but in my very first Budget.”
Making clear that he doesn’t wish to “promise you a land of milk and honey” with a Reform Government, Mr Jenrick admitted that “40 years of decline will not be undone in a single Budget”.
He said: “I will never tire of putting British people first. Now, I won’t stand here before you and promise you a land of milk and honey in 100 days.
“You’ve had 40 years of politicians promising everything and delivering nothing, and that 40 years of decline will not be undone in a single Budget.
“But this we will do and we will do it in our first 100 days. Then, over a full parliament, we’ll build a new economy that works for you.
“Lower taxes, more nurses and doctors, more apprentices, energy that we can afford, more homes for our children and our grandchildren, and a border finally secured – that we will do in 100 days.
“And then when we can, and only when it is paid for in full, I will go further, step by step, until I have reached Reform’s ambition of a £20,000 tax-free allowance. That is my ambition. And here is the difference between Reform and those politicians who know that they will fail you again.”
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