Farage vows to ditch ‘job tax’ and slash EU red tape in huge boost for businesses and jobs_t

Reform UK will extend a lifeline to family firms with a package of new support if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister. Policies announced by the party today will see EU data regulation laws shredded, and Labour’s national insurance tax hike reversed.

Data protection laws will be replaced by what the party calls a light-touch privacy law modelled on New Zealand’s. Income tax on overtime is set to be binned, putting more into the pockets of hard-working Britons across the UK. It would mean employees earning under £75,000 would be exempt from paying income tax on any overtime worked above a 40-hour week.

Other plans include increasing the VAT threshold, set to beef up the bottom lines of around 320,000 small businesses. Additionally, parents and grandparents will benefit from tax relief on investments worth up to £250,000 in a small business owned by a child or grandchild.

Party leader Mr Farage, announcing the policy, said: “Small businesses are the beating heart of our economy, yet they have been suffocated by years of punishing taxes, suffocating EU red tape and a big-state obsession that rewards dependency over hard work.

“While the establishment parties drive small firms to the brink of closure, Reform UK is offering a bold, common-sense rescue plan.

“By slashing burdens like the VAT threshold, reversing the jobs tax on British workers and rewarding hard-work by scrapping tax on overtime, we are unchaining British enterprise and backing the workers who actually create wealth.”

Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick, who is spearheading the announcement, said: “Under a Reform government, the UK will be the best place in the world to start and grow a small business.

“We will back employers by reversing Rachel Reeves’s job tax on British workers and raising the VAT threshold to £150,000 – and we will reward hardworking employees by scrapping income tax on overtime.”

Celebrating the anniversary of the UK’s historic vote to leave the EU, Mr Jenrick added: “Ten years after the Brexit referendum, we should not still be following ridiculous EU privacy laws that hurt British businesses.”

Labour increased National Insurance contributions for employers by 1.2% in a 2024 Budget, a move employers have blaimed for holding back recruitment.