Reform names Robert Jenrick as pick for chancellor

Reform UK has announced Robert Jenrick as the party's pick to become chancellor if it wins power at the next general election.

The former Conservative minister - who defected to Reform last month - said his party's plans would restore stability to the economy, cut waste, bring down the benefits bill and reduce taxes.

Meanwhile, another recent Tory defector, Suella Braverman, has been handed the education and skills brief, with deputy leader Richard Tice given a new role combining business, trade and energy policy.

Announcing his new top team, which he branded a "shadow cabinet", leader Nigel Farage said Reform was "the voice of opposition" to the Labour government.

As the party with the largest number of MPs behind Labour, the Conservatives are the official opposition with a shadow cabinet mirroring government ministers.

However, with Reform consistently leading in national opinion polls since last spring, Farage said it was time to "broaden the party" and put people in "shadow positions" to counter claims Reform was "a one-man band".

Jenrick is a former housing secretary, and has held ministerial roles at the Home Office and health department when the Conservatives were in government. He also held a junior Treasury role as exchequer secretary under Theresa May.

Zia Yusuf, currently Reform's head of policy, was announced as the party's lead on home affairs, with a focus on cutting legal and illegal immigration.

Before Jenrick's defection, both Tice and Yusuf had been considered potential chancellors in a future Reform government.

However, Tice, whom Farage said would also become deputy prime minister if Reform won power, insisted "we're all delighted" with the jobs given.

Tice said he would focus on using oil and gas to help boost economic growth, while abandoning net zero targets.

Braverman said a Reform government would set a target of 50% of young people going into "trades" rather than to university.

The former home secretary was also given responsibility for equalities policy, but said Reform would scrap the role of equalities minister.

She said the country was being "ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion" and Reform would repeal New Labour's Equality Act, passed in 2010, which contains legal protections against discrimination.

Braverman said the move would "build a country defined by meritocracy, not tokenism" and "personal responsibility, not victimhood".

The party did not set out what would replace the legislation, but Farage said it would mean "getting rid of the pernicious, divisive notion of protected characteristics", while still protecting people in the workplace.

Challenged over his decision to promote two recent Conservative defectors, Farage said Reform would also need people with experience in government.

He said Reform would also be bringing in people who are "genuine experts in their area" to take up junior ministerial positions and offer "real world experience".

Jenrick was sacked as Kemi Badenoch's shadow justice secretary last month for plotting to defect, before being unveiled as a Reform recruit hours later.

A former supporter of the Remain campaign to stay in the EU, for much of his career Jenrick had been considered a moderate but he had been shifting to the right for some time before he joined Reform.

He lost out to Badenoch in the 2024 Tory leadership election, when his pitch focused on a tougher approach to cutting immigration.

During the campaign, Jenrick also argued for less spending on benefits in order to cut income tax.

With the next general election not likely to be until 2029, Reform - which currently has eight MPs - has not yet set out its full policy programme.

In November, Farage rowed back on Reform's previous promise to deliver tax cuts worth £90bn a year, in a move seen as an attempt to strengthen the party's credibility on economic policy.

Instead, he said the party would make some "relatively modest" changes, such as raising tax thresholds, scrapping inheritance tax on family-run businesses, and reversing Labour's move to charge inheritance tax on farmland.

Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Reform's front bench "looks more like a tribute act to the old Conservative Party than a credible alternative".

Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said Farage's top team was made up of "failed Tories" who had "failed Britain before" and would "do the same again under Reform".

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "Nigel Farage is welcome to give his colleagues new name badges but it won't change the opinion of the country - that Conservatives, current or former, are totally unfit to govern."

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