OPINION - Nigel Farage: As we launch our Contract, this is what Reform can offer the country

In the two weeks since I announced I would be standing as a candidate, we have electrified the debate about Britain’s future and breathed life into this zombie General Election campaign.

Last week a national opinion poll put Reform UK ahead of the Conservatives for the first time. We are now beating the Tories in the “Red Wall” seats that, with my help, gave Boris Johnson his big majority last time around.

The establishment parties are panicking about the rise of Reform, and trying to stop us by spreading familiar falsehoods and slurs. So, let me tell Standard readers what is really happening.

This election is over. The question now is, who can lead an effective opposition to Labour over the next five years?

Rishi Sunak’s Tories have already lost the election. After 14 years in government, marked by broken promises and betrayals under five successive Tory prime ministers, the message we hear on the doorsteps of Britain is that voters have just had enough of them.

The Conservatives have nobody to blame but themselves for their demise. They have failed to stop mass migration, failed to reduce taxation, failed to raise living standards or get woke indoctrination out of our schools. What is “conservative” about anything they have done?

Now the desperate Tories trot out the tired argument that a vote for Reform is a wasted vote which would ensure a big Labour majority and so hand Keir Starmer a “blank cheque” in government.

The truth is that Labour will get that majority, however you vote. The best way to hand Starmer a “blank cheque” would be to expect the divided, crumbling Tories to stand up to Labour after July 4. All the evidence is that they will be even more useless in opposition than they have been in government. A vote for Conservatives, especially in the Red Wall, is now a real wasted vote.

What of Starmer’s Labour? They are cruising to a big win, albeit largely by default, promising they have a “plan to change Britain”. But how much will really change under Starmer? On the key issues there is little to choose between the two establishment parties.

London, Starmer’s Labour stronghold, is an iconic global city that should showcase all that is best about Britain, past and present. Instead, alongside its wealth and cultural richness, Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan’s London showcases all the problems of urban living in the modern UK.

For too long, much of London has effectively been a one-party state under Labour dominance. As the Tories collapse, the whole of Britain is about to go the same way.

Reform is now the real opposition. We are building the resistance for the next five years.

Reform’s Contract With You, launched today, has plans that, if implemented, could bring real change and transform life in London and the UK for the better. We would make it possible for more people — especially young people — to own their own homes by fast-tracking planning reforms to unleash house building and utilise empty offices and shops. We would keep healthcare free at the point of use and cut NHS waiting lists by reducing office waste and investing in front line services.

We would lift the income tax starting threshold to £20,000, saving lower-paid workers £1,500 a year. We would end the crazed pursuit of irrational, unaffordable Net Zero targets, slash energy bills and end the war on motorists. We would boost police numbers and ensure that the police enforce the law and pursue criminals rather than enforcing woke ideologies.

And above all, we would reduce the pressure on our economy and services and ease the tensions on our streets by freezing all non-essential immigration, while detaining and deporting all illegal migrants.

We know that Reform will not be in a position to implement these plans after July 4. But with your support, I am confident that I can be the voice of an opposition that will stand up to the Labour government and hold Keir Starmer to account. I’m not afraid of a fight. I won’t bow to Twitter pressure or to a mob on the streets. I’ve taken on the European Union. I’ve taken on the big banks. And I’m confident I can now take on a Labour government that will have almost no honeymoon period, will inherit deep problems, and seem clueless about how to sort out the country.

Britain is broken, Britain needs Reform. And we need Reform MPs in parliament to make our opposition count. We are on the road to making it happen. My message to Londoners is: for too long, you’ve been let down and taken for granted by the old parties. Come on, join the revolt. It’s time.

Nigel Farage is the leader of Reform UK