Reform pledges income tax threshold rise to £15,000

Reform UK has promised to raise the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister, the BBC reports. The policy was unveiled at the party's conference.

The personal allowance is the amount you can earn before paying income tax. The Express calls it a "huge" tax cut from HMRC's current threshold. The policy would take millions of lower earners out of income tax altogether.

The promise arrives as Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces criticism from multiple directions. The Mirror's Brian Reade writes that Burnham "set fire to Thatcherism and Brexit" - the culture war dressed as praise. The Express reports Burnham has been accused of a "staggering" hike in university tuition fees, and that his "latest motoring plan" risks undermining the car industry. GB News carries the tuition fees claim; the Express runs both.

The threshold is doing political work. A tax-free allowance set that high would cost the Treasury tens of billions a year - money that comes from somewhere else or doesn't get spent. The question Reform is answering is not whether the sums add up, but whether voters believe the current system taxes work too heavily and spending too lightly. The threshold is the instrument; the argument is about the size of the state.

Watch how Burnham and the Treasury cost the proposal, and whether Reform publishes the arithmetic before the next election.