Reform silence after Farage suggests again that he favours sweeping cuts to disability benefits

The right-wing populist party Reform UK has given a rare glimpse of its disability policies, after its leader Nigel Farage suggested he was strongly in favour of cuts to disabled people’s benefits.

The party’s supporters have attempted to make political capital in recent months by feeding off anger aimed at the Labour government’s planned cuts of billions of pounds to disability benefits.

But comments made by Farage (pictured) at a press conference late last week suggest he is himself strongly in favour of sweeping cuts to disability benefits, and that he has been poorly briefed about how the benefits and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) systems work.

He described young disabled people who received out-of-work benefits as “victims” and claimed there was “massive” overdiagnosis of mental health conditions and “other general behavioural disabilities”.

Farage said: “I have to say, for my own money, when you get to 18 and you put somebody on a disability register, unemployed, with a high level of benefits, you’re telling people aged 18 that they’re victims.

“And if you are told you are a victim, and you think you’re a victim, you are very likely to stay as a victim.”

He claimed that many eligibility tests for SEND support and disability benefits were carried out by “the family GP” over Zoom, which he said was “a massive mistake” and was “creating a class of victims in Britain who will struggle ever to get out of it and that is not good for them and it’s not good for us”.

Reform UK has said little about its own disability policies since its last general election manifesto suggested it would save £15 billion a year by forcing “1 million plus back to work”, and that it would “ensure those who can work do work”.

It also stated in the manifesto that work was “critical to improving mental health” and that “all job seekers and those fit to work” would have to find employment within four months or accept a job after two offers, or “benefits are withdrawn”.

Farage’s latest comments – despite his errors – suggest those policies have not changed.

Disability News Service contacted both Reform UK’s press office and Farage’s parliamentary office about his comments, but neither responded to the questions.

Reform UK does not appear to have a functioning press office, other than a single email address, or even a publicly-available phone number.

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