“I think it’s interesting that he concentrated on but didn’t give any detail on how they would cut back on public finances.”
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea has slammed Reform UK’s claims it will get the economy “under control”.
On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Zia Yusuf said the Tories and Labour had “wrecked” the public finances. He claimed Reform would restore them.
When asked how, Yusuf said Reform would cut foreign aid, which would save just £7-8 billion per year. He also said Reform would make savings by cutting “insane net zero policies” and Personal Independence Payments for people with “low-level anxiety”.
Responding to his comments, McAnea pointed out that Yusuf failed to explain how Reform would get the public finances “back under control”.
She said: “I think it’s interesting that he [Zia Yusuf] concentrated on but didn’t give any detail on how they would cut back on public finances,” McAnea said.
“He said get it back under control. What does that actually mean?,” the Unison general secretary added.
The Unison boss pointed out that Reform promised to make huge savings to local government spending before the local elections, but have failed to do so.
McAnea said: “If you look at the councils Reform UK now run, they went in with lots of bluster on ‘we’re going to cut all sorts of things and save lots of money’”.
“Then they’ve come up against the reality of the fact that local government doesn’t have any extra money and there’s nothing to cut”.
“So if you look at what Reform UK have actually achieved there, it’s next to nothing”.
It has recently come to light that in eight councils Nigel Farage’s party runs, Reform is set to put up council tax as they haven’t been able to balance the books.
More broadly, McAnea said that the Labour government needs to have “a reset”.
In a damning analysis of Labour’s performance, she said: “I think that the past 15 months have been awful, there’s been lots of own goals.”
The Union leader added that ahead of the Budget on 26 November, she would like to see the government change its fiscal policy.
McAnea said she thinks Keir Starmer will still be the leader of the Labour Party after the May 2026 elections, but said “I couldn’t honestly guarantee it”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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