The Central Devon MP and Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has hit back at the Reform UK leader over his promise to slash taxes if he wins the next general election.

Nigel Farage announced on Tuesday, May 27 that he would increase the threshold for paying income tax and restore winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Just after Farage made this announcement, top economics at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said these changes would cost the country up to £80 billion.

In an interview with GB News, MP Mel Stride said: “None of it is thought through. It is all fantasy economics, and it’s really dangerous for our economy. Reform are now going to come under the kind of scrutiny that they have not faced so far. And I think it’s really important that that happens.

“What you’re seeing is Nigel Farage trying to be all things to all people, with lots of announcements and no thinking behind how he’s going to pay for any of these things. He will play whatever tune he thinks appeals to the people he’s playing the tune to, but that’s not serious grown-up politics.

“We’ve got four years to this election, and he’s going to have to try and keep this juggling act going for another four years, and it’s our job to now hold him to account and give him the kind of scrutiny that he has enjoyed not having.

“What the government has done is to mismanage the economy, destroy a lot of growth and put us in a very parlous position when it comes to the public finances with rising tax rates. That’s not right.

“What Nigel Farage is doing is just simply running around saying, well, everybody can have whatever they want, including lots of tax cuts. If he gets into government with that approach, the markets are going to run a mile.”