Reform UK pledges to scrap GDPR for ‘light-touch’ laws

Press Association Political Staff

Reform UK has pledged to scrap UK privacy rules in favour of a “light-touch” approach to data protection as part of a bid to slash “red tape” for businesses.

Treasury spokesman for the party Robert Jenrick said the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mirrors EU legislation and was adopted as domestic law after Brexit, had “strangled” tech firms and small enterprises.

The framework would be replaced by rules modelled on New Zealand’s privacy legislation, which is seen as more lenient, Reform said.

Mr Jenrick will outline the pro-business pitch on Wednesday, including a pledge to widen a tax-relief scheme for investors in small businesses in the UK in a bid to allow relatives to claim advantages more easily.

Reform said it would change the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to ensure parents and grandparents can put up to £250,000 into their child or grandchild’s small business and receive an income tax rebate of 50% and exemption from capital gains tax if they hold the investment for three years.

The party has also announced promises to reverse the rise in employer national insurance contributions and changes to inheritance tax on farms while introducing a “hard work bonus” that scraps income tax on overtime.

Party leader Mr Farage 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.”

Mr Jenrick said the GDPR had “strangled small businesses and tech firms alike in a web of unnecessary regulation”.

“Ten years after the Brexit referendum, we should not still be following ridiculous EU privacy laws that hurt British businesses.

A Labour spokesperson said: “First Reform want to rip up the Online Safety Act which keeps kids safe online. Now they plan to scrap vital safeguards that protect people’s private data.

“These unworkable and unserious plans are just a desperate attempt to distract from Nigel Farage’s secret £5 million ‘gift’ from a Thai-based crypto billionaire.

“With Andy Burnham’s leadership, Labour is backing small businesses, reviving our high streets and driving growth in every postcode.”

‘Half-baked’

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the announcement was “a mixture of already-made promises and half-baked schemes that collapse on contact with reality”.

He added: “Reform’s policy on overtime has already been exposed as an unfunded shambles.

“Their VAT registration plans present another multibillion-pound black hole, inevitably meaning more taxes or more borrowing, and there is little detail on how their proposals to scrap GDPR would work.”

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