Nigel Farage’s march to the left continues. Reform is now committed not just to reinstating winter fuel payments for all pensioners but also, more significantly, to scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
This is striking but shouldn’t be a surprise. Reform’s move to the left on economic questions has been arguably the most important political trend of the year. It’s a big part of the reason that Labour now considers Reform, not the Conservatives, to be the main opposition party. It also shows that Farage is properly serious about winning seats and winning power.
The winter fuel gambit is common or garden opportunistic opposition politics – the Tories have made a similar pledge, despite their 2017 manifesto pledge to, er, cut winter fuel payments for wealthier pensioners. And Reform generally does better with older voters, so offering them a bung makes sense, in crude political terms.
But the promise to scrap the two-child rule is properly important and interesting.
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