Robert Jenrick vows to lift personal allowance to £15,000 in 100 days
Reform UK's Robert Jenrick has pledged to increase the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 within 100 days of taking power, promising to resign if he fails to deliver.
Reform UK's Robert Jenrick has used a high-stakes party conference speech to vow that a future Reform government would lift the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 within a hundred days of entering office, framing the move as an urgent rescue mission for squeezed British workers.
Speaking on Saturday, 5 September 2026, in Birmingham, Mr Jenrick argued that the current tax system represents a decades-long conspiracy against working people. The personal allowance has remained frozen at £12,570 since 2021, a freeze that both Labour and Conservative administrations have extended despite widespread criticism over stealth taxation. According to Mr Jenrick, this stagnation has left the threshold £3,500 lower than it would otherwise have been, dragging 1.3 million additional people into paying tax in a single recent year and threatening to tax the state pension for the first time.
The Dailymail reported that Mr Jenrick has staked his political future on the pledge, promising delegates that he would step down as Chancellor if the tax cut is not implemented within the opening weeks of a Reform administration. Party projections suggest the measure would save most taxpayers roughly £500 a year, or £1,000 per couple, while keeping the state pension entirely untaxed. The long-term ambition for the party remains an eventual rise to £20,000, though Mr Jenrick conceded that further increases would only occur when fully funded.
| Metric | Proposed Reform Policy | Current Baseline |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-Free Personal Allowance | £15,000 within 100 days (ultimate goal £20,000) | Frozen at £12,570 since 2021 |
| Estimated Beneficiaries | Around 40 million people | Subject to ongoing stealth tax drag |
| Projected Cost to Treasury | £17.7 billion in year one, rising to £21 billion by year five | N/A (Treasury revenue maintained via freeze) |
| Funding Mechanism | £80 billion in spending cuts (welfare, foreign aid, Net Zero) | N/A |
To pay for the policy, Reform plans to draw upon £80 billion of pre-identified savings, targeting the welfare bill, foreign aid spending, and Net Zero commitments. The initial cost of raising the allowance is calculated at £17.7 billion in the first year, climbing to £21 billion by the fifth year of the parliament. Mr Jenrick challenged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to match the commitment, noting that Mr Burnham previously acknowledged public frustration over the personal allowance during a by-election campaign before ruling out immediate changes after entering Downing Street. In the politics sphere, the debate over public finances remains intense, with Mr Jenrick also launching a sharp attack on Cabinet minister John Healey over defence funding.
The major tax announcement served to deflect attention from a difficult opening day at the Birmingham conference, which had been dominated by an undercover filming scandal. Two senior party aides, James Orr and Dan Jukes, were suspended after footage appeared to show them discussing methods to disguise foreign donations. Conflicting accounts initially emerged from senior figures regarding whether the suspensions were permanent or pending investigation, but Mr Jenrick later insisted on Times Radio that the pair had been permanently suspended from their roles and had left the venue.
Addressing the gathering in his closing speech, party leader Nigel Farage brushed aside the controversies and praised the resilience of his membership.
Mr Farage added:"Much of mainstream media today says the Reform UK conference was subdued. Are you subdued?"
Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, via The Guardian
"There will be times in this journey when there are good days, and times when there are difficult days. More often than not, things will be put upon us that are unfair. But sometimes we will make mistakes, sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking for it. But what this conference has shown is whatever you throw at the leadership, whatever you throw at the people’s army, we immediately pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and start all over again."
Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, via The Guardian
The Labour Party swiftly dismissed the tax announcement as a transparent distraction tactic. A Labour spokesperson stated that Mr Jenrick was only interested in making people better off when Reform UK are trying to distract from the latest scandal engulfing their party, warning that Reform's reliance on mystery spending cuts could jeopardize vital local schools, hospitals, and public services.
Attention now turns to the upcoming fiscal events, with political observers watching to see whether the government addresses income tax thresholds during the upcoming Budget on 28 October 2026, and how Reform manages its ongoing internal fallout ahead of the next general election campaign.
