{"id":391690,"date":"2026-01-26T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391690\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:28:08","slug":"reform-says-it-would-cut-green-policies-to-fund-2bn-income-tax-cut-in-scotland-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391690\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform says it would cut green policies to fund \u00a32bn income tax cut in Scotland | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK would slash what it calls \u201chighly dubious\u201d environmental protection measures to help fund a \u00a32bn cut to income tax in Scotland if it won May\u2019s Holyrood elections, the party has said.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Offord, the multimillionaire financier<\/a> who was announced as leader of Reform UK in Scotland 10 days ago, used his first major speech to announce plans to realign the country\u2019s tax system \u2013 where higher earners currently pay significantly more \u2013 with the rest of the UK and institute a 1p-in-the-pound cut across the board.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated polling showing Reform UK neck and neck with Scottish Labour for second place behind the Scottish National party, Offord claimed May\u2019s election was a \u201ctwo-horse race\u201d between his party and the nationalists.<\/p>\n

He urged \u201cmoderate unionists no longer represented by the Tories\u201d and \u201crational nationalists no longer represented by the SNP\u201d to find \u201ccommon ground\u201d in their support for Reform, but dismissed any prospect of a second referendum on independence in the medium term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say no to the distraction of another referendum, for at least another 10 years, without ruling one out in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recent polling for the Sunday Times suggests the majority of SNP and Labour voters would vote across their constitutional preference in order to defeat Reform.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a country club near Glasgow, Offord said that a total of 3p in the pound would be cut from income taxes over the first five years of a Reform government.<\/p>\n

The party believes the realignment would cost \u00a31.2bn, with \u00a3850m more for each 1p cut. Offord said: \u201cThe immediate cost on day one of \u00a32bn and that will be paid for by reallocation of the currently \u00a39bn that we spend on highly dubious environmental protections, economic development and 132 unaccountable quangos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pressed on the detail of the proposed cuts, Offord said the party had not conducted a \u201cline by line\u201d analysis yet, adding: \u201cAll we can be very clear about is that there\u2019s been a huge amount of overlap, duplication and waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Boyd, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland<\/a>, described the proposals as \u201cprofoundly unserious, almost comically so\u201d, saying he could not identify how Reform UK could come close to the savings it claimed it could make and underlined the \u201csignificant impact on public sector jobs and pay going forward\u201d should the proposals come to pass.<\/p>\n

Offord claimed to view immigration policy \u201cthrough the lens of the Christian faith\u201d. Having made reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, however, he went on to say: \u201cRight now, especially in this cost of living scenario, we need to prioritise our own people over strangers. Instead, from Inverness to Falkirk, local people are witnessing priority of services, opportunity and safety being given to strangers, and that is not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK would slash what it calls \u201chighly dubious\u201d environmental protection measures to help fund a \u00a32bn cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-391690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}