Reform would restore two-child benefit cap in full, Jenrick to pledge

Reform UK would restore the two-child benefit cap in full, marking a change to its policy, Robert Jenrick will announce in his first outing as the party’s Treasury spokesman.

He will also commit the party to changes to the Motability scheme and limiting welfare to only go to British nationals.

Mr Jenrick will also pledge to reform the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) rather than abolish it, and say the Bank of England would remain independent if he were in No 11.

He is expected to say: “Today, Reform is changing our policy on the two-child cap for universal credit.

“We want to help working families have more children. But right now, we just cannot afford to do so with welfare. So it has to go.

“As Reform’s shadow chancellor, I’m ending it. A Reform government will restore the cap in full.”

The party has previously said it would lift the two-child benefit cap – but only for British families in work.

Mr Jenrick is expected to say Reform would “defuse the benefits bomb set to bankrupt Britain”.

All mental health benefits will require a clinical diagnosis to “weed out those who are choosing a life on benefits”, and the party will end the “abuse of the Motability scheme”, he will say.

Nigel Farage named his top team on Tuesday, barely a month after Mr Jenrick left the Conservative front bench where he was shadow justice secretary.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who also left the Conservatives for Reform last month, was made her new party’s education, skills and equalities spokeswoman.

In a City of London pitch, Mr Jenrick is expected to say net zero efforts have become a “distraction” for the Bank of England.

He will accuse Labour and the Conservatives of “taking more of the British people’s money and spraying it around, with no regard for how hard they’ve worked for it or their priorities”.

He is expected to say the OBR has overestimated the benefits of low-skilled migration, adding: “Everything Reform promise will be fully costed.

“And because we’re confident about the approach we will take, we’re happy to have our homework marked.

“The OBR is far from perfect but the impetus for its creation was a desire to instil fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse.

“Rather than abolish it, we will reform it.

“We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion.

“We’ll run competitions for super-forecasters to join the body and pay competitive salaries to those who most accurately model the impact of Treasury decisions.”

On the Bank of England, Reform UK will focus on “keeping inflation low”, according to Mr Jenrick.

He will say: “We will strip the Bank of distractions which have been loaded on to it.

“That includes the requirement for the Bank to help the transition to net zero.

“We will demand that the Bank is a more open institution, and the private sector better represented on the Monetary Policy Committee.”

Mr Jenrick previously served as a Treasury minister during Theresa May’s premiership and was communities secretary under Boris Johnson.

Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said: “Robert Jenrick is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes but he can’t hide from his appalling record in government.”

Mr Tomlinson said Mr Farage’s party had “already made billions of pounds in unfunded spending commitments”.

He continued: “Jenrick and his former Tory party smashed family finances and he’d do the same again through Reform.

“While Reform and their Tory defectors have talked down and trashed our economy, this Labour Government has made the fair choices to fix our economy.

“Our action has seen inflation and interest rates falling, the economy growing, and wages rising – putting money back in people’s pockets.”

Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Jenrick claims Reform are happy to have their homework marked, yet they still haven’t explained the £10.5 billion black hole in their pubs plan, and when challenged on it they said they were ‘not interested in the numbers’.

“Make no mistake, Reform’s back-of-a-fag-packet numbers would not withstand contact with OBR scrutiny.

“Their recklessness would leave our economy weaker.”

Sir Mel referred to comments which Mr Farage made last month, when the Reform leader told The Telegraph: “We have to discuss whether we would be better off without the OBR – I am giving that very serious thought.”

The shadow chancellor said: “It’s the same old story with Reform – say one thing, then row back as soon as questions are asked.

“They have no plan and no principles.”

Mr Jenrick and Ms Braverman joined the Reform UK front bench team alongside Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader and business, trade and energy spokesman, and Zia Yusuf, the home affairs spokesman.