Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's shadow Chancellor, has pledged to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 within his first 100 days in office if the party wins the next general election, promising to resign if he fails to deliver it in that timescale. The announcement, made at Reform's conference in Birmingham, was designed to shift attention away from a row over undercover footage that led to two party aides being suspended over alleged attempts to circumvent electoral law.

Jenrick said the move would take 2.9 million people out of income tax entirely and shield the state pension from taxation, saving a typical family £1,000 a year; Reform's longer-term goal is a £20,000 allowance. He said the policy would cost £17.7 billion in its first year, rising to £21 billion by year five, funded by £80 billion of savings from welfare, Net Zero spending and foreign aid cuts. The personal allowance has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021, and Jenrick warned that a planned rise in the state pension to £13,000 next year would drag millions of pensioners into paying tax for the first time. Nigel Farage backed the plan and predicted Prime Minister Andy Burnham would call a spring election, while Labour accused Reform of using the pledge to distract from the ongoing scandal.