Nigel Farage’s comments about young workers’ wages and other matters should send shock waves through any youngsters or parents considering voting for Reform UK Ltd. At a Reform UK news conference setting out their economic plans, Farage was questioned on whether he thought that the minimum wage was too high. He replied: “There’s an argument that minimum wage is too high for younger workers, particularly given that we’ve lowered the level at which NIC (employers’ national insurance) is paid to £5,000 a year.”
While that is likely to mean having to give up gym membership or a night out with friends, it will also have profound effects on families; think about the young person living at home and making contributions to the household income, who will also be hit. Or what about the young adult working their way through university; will they just work longer hours which might affect their studies, or will parents need to step in and help support them?
But why should young people be paid less for the same work? It seems rather rich from Britain’s highest-paid MP, declaring more than £873,000, in addition to his MP’s salary, since the general election, according to The Good Law Project. Indeed, Farage was also revealed to be using a private company to pay less tax on his GB News earnings. What a patriotic message to send out to UK voters for a man wanting to be prime minister.
Voting age and walking to school also in Reform’s sights
When it was announced that 16 and 17-year-olds would be given the right to vote, Farage was quick to come out against the policy, telling ITV News: “I don’t think you should be able to vote in an election unless you’re also eligible to be a candidate.” On social media, Reform posted a video with the caption “Giving 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote is an attempt to rig the political system” and said that the education system has an “anti-Reform bias”.
Local Reform polices
But what about youth policies locally? Recently, teenage Cllr George Finch, Reform council leader here in Warwickshire, asked councillors to increase statutory walking distances to school.
Finch wrote to Bridget Phillipson, seeking permission to revise rules that govern pupils’ eligibility for free home-to-school transport. Reform is seeking permission for those to be set at a local level, and in the case of Warwickshire, extend distances by two miles for each of the age categories.
In response, the education secretary Bridget Phillipson accused Reform UK Ltd of taking “children back to the Victorian era” with their idea that pupils as young as eight could walk five miles (about 1.5 hours) to school. Imagine that on the country lanes of Warwickshire in the middle of winter, setting off at 7.30am.
Manuela Perteghella, the MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, hit out at the plan, saying it would “punish families” and “put children’s safety at risk”.
Reform’s proposed return to austerity
And what of the children born into Tory austerity under a potential Reform government? At a recent speech, Farage made a huge U-turn on his party’s promise to cut taxes and laid out a return to austerity. What does austerity mean? Having spent years living through it, it generally means cuts: cuts to healthcare, education and council services – pretty much everything gets cut. What kind of future is Farage offering our children by imposing more of the same?
Of course, most people, aside from those insulated by wealth, are affected by austerity, but it’s those at the beginning of their adult lives who will feel the impacts of Reform’s policies further down the line. And of those young adults it’s their children who surely bear the brunt of this, and it’s not just the obvious immediate impact of a cold house or flat nor going hungry, but as Central Bylines writer Dean Conway states: “the impact of austerity runs far deeper than the economy. It has left a legacy of trauma and mental ill-health that plagues Britain’s children today.”
“As a child, I saw my mother burst into tears over fears that we wouldn’t be able to afford food the next month. I saw her mental health worsen with each new announced benefits cut. I bounced between nine different homes with her, and we lived through months of hidden homelessness. The chaos and instability of these years left me with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.”
What cuts can we expect, and what will be the effect?
Farage said he would cut public spending and took aim at welfare in April 2025, arguing that disabilities were being “over-diagnosed”. He said the UK is “massively over-diagnosing those with mental illness problems” and is creating a “class of victims”. He went further to target young SEND diagnoses saying that “So many of these diagnoses, for SEND before 18, for disability register after 18 – so many of these have been conducted on Zoom, with the family GP.”
Farage’s comments haven’t gone down well even within his own party. Reform UK’s first mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns who, along with her young son, has ADHD, told the BBC:
“All I can go on is my personal experience as a parent, as somebody who’s neurodiverse myself, and as a former MP who saw some of the very sad stories of children, how they’ve been left behind really.”
Jenkyns said she had seen people waiting three or four years to receive a diagnosis for a child, “by which time they’re going into secondary education and they’re way behind”.
“I pulled my child out of mainstream into private school because he was two years behind, and as a parent you do the best for your child. I know his daily struggles and to me it’s about ensuring everybody gets that best start in life, no matter what your background is.”
Reform’s growing hostility toward SEND support
Elsewhere Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice recently said: “I’ll just raise one more point: the sight of children in classes wearing ear defenders – I’m sorry, this is just insane. It’s got to stop. The teachers want it to stop. Heads want it to stop. It’s not the right way forward.”
I asked a friend what this would mean for her 12-year-old, who has ADHD and autism and wears ear defenders at school every day and her reply was “My child would have been out of school for about 6 years without ear defenders.”
Tice’s comments were also heavily condemned by many, including Joey Nettleton Burrows from the National Autistic Society who said Tice’s claim of overdiagnosis “couldn’t be further from the truth”.
“The system needs reform to meet the needs of all children, so that SEND children, including autistic young people, can access a suitable school place and thrive.
“Spreading these kinds of lies stigmatises autistic people and makes life harder for them and their families.”
So if you are young or have a young family, should you vote for millionaire Nigel Farage? For me, he is likely to directly impoverish and disenfranchise the young – Reform UK Ltd’s policies are already shaping up in this way. Where will it end?
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