Nigel Farage has promised sweeping reforms to Britain’s welfare and tax system aimed at reversing plummeting birth rates, scrapping the two-child benefit cap, and offering tax breaks to married couples as part of a bid to strengthen the traditional family and reduce dependence on mass immigration.
In a major policy speech on Tuesday, the Reform U.K. leader said Britain is facing an “existential crisis” due to collapsing fertility rates and argued that the country’s tax system needs to be restructured to make it easier for people to afford children and to reward marriage.
“The Tories and Labour have sought to solve it with open borders,” Farage said. “A Reform government will cut net immigration to zero and do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them.”
“Scrapping the two-child benefit cap is just the start,” he added. “We will, as soon as finances allow, introduce a UK 25 percent transferable marriage tax allowance.”
The U.K.’s fertility rate fell to 1.4 in 2023, the lowest level since World War II. A total of 591,072 live births were recorded for the year.
Farage has linked the demographic decline to an overreliance on immigration, arguing that boosting the birth rate would create a stronger domestic workforce.
“We need to encourage people to have families and ensure they feel financially able to have them,” the Reform U.K. leader said.
Asked how the proposed tax breaks and benefits would be funded, Farage pointed to cuts to what he called wasteful spending on “illegal immigration accommodation, DEI policies, and Net Zero” as areas where he said over £300 billion could be saved over the next parliamentary term.
“If you add all that up, you have got a pretty eye-watering number of £350 billion. And whilst that may be, I accept, slightly optimistic because it is difficult always to cut everything, I think you can see very clearly the direction that we are going in,” he said.
“We want to try and make the family a more important element in British life,” Farage told reporters. He added: “There is lots and lots of evidence to suggest that children growing up into adulthood in a stable family background do better in life. Don’t we deserve to try and help create the framework for young people to succeed?”
Farage’s proposals draw comparisons with Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has pursued a long-term strategy of increasing the national birth rate through family-friendly policies. On Sunday, Hungary’s state secretary for families, Zsófia Koncz, said the 2026 budget would include “Europe’s largest tax reduction program for families.”
Hungary plans to spend 5 percent of GDP on family support next year — around €12 billion — with measures such as exemptions from social security tax for mothers, expanded family tax benefits, and permanent personal income tax exemptions for women raising children.
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