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Reform UK has long made it known that its mission is to target the Tories. The fledgling party might even be lethal for the Tories come polling day.
While there are doubts whether Reform will be able to secure any seats of its own, it has long been accepted that it will contribute to the destruction of the Tories – and will hand Labour an even bigger majority than they would otherwise get.
But yesterday, when Reform UK unveiled its plan for the NHS, Richard Tice for the first time appeared to take the fight straight to Labour.
Hitting them where it hurts, the Reform leader accused Labour of having “betrayed working people”. On the NHS, he said they have “no answers”.
Yesterday, when Reform UK unveiled its plan for the NHS, Richard Tice for the first time appeared to take the fight straight to Labour.
PA
In a sign that Reform UK means business, Tice warned that the healthcare system is in “absolute crisis”. He claimed that “no one’s listening to what the Tories say any more” but “there’s no answers from the Labour Party really on healthcare”.
He tapped into issues that are easy point winners among voters, going straight for net zero and “eco-zealots”.
Speaking about Starmer’s Labour party, Tice said: “They no longer care, they have no plans, they have no solutions. All they’re focused on, frankly, are the woke, managerial middle class who happen to be eco-zealots.”
He told a London press conference that the fledgling party would abandon the net zero emissions drive, instead using the money to improve the NHS.
Tice promised his party would aim to cut waiting lists across the health service to zero in two years. The Reform UK leader said: “Yes, it is going to take a bit of extra money but we are not going to give it to bungling NHS bureaucrats.”
He said his plan for the NHS would require an extra £17 billion in funding each year, adding that Reform UK estimates the cost of net zero would be about £30 billion a year.
Tice said: “We have a choice in this country, it seems to me. A pretty clear choice. Do we want zero waiting lists in two years and to keep them there, that is the Reform choice. Or do we want net zero CO2 emissions in 25 years? That is the Labour choice.”
The NHS is not only the Labour Party’s bread and butter but also something that voters have been shown to care most about.
Polling conducted in February showed that NHS has overtaken soaring prices as the issue most Britons believe is the biggest challenge facing the UK.
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Ipsos issues index from February found that, when asked to identify the most pressing issues facing Britain, more people named the NHS than any other.
The Labour Party currently has a 20-point lead on the Tories, and an even greater lead on Reform UK – so it’s very much a David and Goliath situation for Richard Tice if he tries to ramp up his attacks on Labour.
But his most recent intervention shows that Reform UK isn’t willing to accept being simply a single-issue protest vote – and Starmer should remember not to underestimate them when putting together the party’s manifesto ahead of this year’s general election.
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