Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick (Image: Getty)
Robert Jenrick has vowed to “reindustrialise” Britain by slashing the cost of energy to help the nation’s key industries. Reform’s “shadow chancellor” told the Express: “We are losing our steel, our car manufacturing, our glass, our ceramics, our chemical industries. There are millions of good jobs that rely on these industries, and they simply will not survive if we continue to have energy prices that are five or six time higher than the United States.”
A Reform government would also aim to save “tens of billions of pounds” by cutting waste, net zero subsidies and spending on asylum seekers, with the proceeds used partly for tax cuts, he said. Mr Jenrick, a former Tory cabinet minister, became the biggest name so far to defect to Reform, when he switched to Nigel Farage’s party in January. He’s since been named Mr Farage’s candidate to become Chancellor.
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The Nottinghamshire MP insists he felt immediately at home, saying: “I have really enjoyed working with Nigel. He’s got bags of energy and he’s got real conviction.”
His plan for government involves working closely with Richard Tice, who will lead an expanded business, trade and energy department if Reform win power, to axe “green” policies championed by Labour Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, and expand the use of nuclear power and fossil fuels from the North Sea.
Mr Jenrick said: “We are certainly going to scrap the net zero madness, that’s for sure.
“It’s impoverishing people and it’s deindustrialising our country.
“A Reform government will have one simple goal for our energy policy, which is energy abundance.
“We want cheap and reliable energy for consumers, who are finding life tough at the moment, and for businesses, so we can reindustrialise.”
Reform are often portrayed as a right-wing party but their position on the economy, at least, is more nuanced than this suggests and they are not wedded to free market economics. Mr Jenrick said Reform would intervene to protect “strategic industries” if needed.
“We do see the connection between economics and security. There are some strategic industries that we need to ensure we preserve and set on a course for future success. Steel is one of those.
“But we will be very judicious in the way we intervene. We don’t believe in picking winners or a return to the industrial strategy of the 1970s. But most successful economies today do have an industrial strategy, whether that is Singapore, the United States or others.
“And there is a role for the state to work with those industries.”
The Covid crisis contributed to the UK’s huge public sector debt of £2,923.7 billion and rising, leaving Chancellor Rachel Reeves little room for manoeuvre – though Reform argues her decisions have made the state of the public finances even worse.
Mr Jenrick insists he will be able to find money to spend, including by axing “net zero” subisidies for heat pumps and electric vehicles, and by cutting the cost of the asylum system.
He said: “We’ve got to cut waste. There’s billions and billions of pounds being wasted right now on priorities that are not those of the British people.
“We are spending billions on giving welfare to migrants. Billions on hotels for illegal immigrants. Billions on net zero subsidies.”
He said that Reform has already identified £13 billion that could be saved from Ed Milliband’s energy department. He continued: “And in the next Parliament that will be tens of billions of pounds. So if we can find those savings, take those difficult decisions, then yes we can bring down people’s bills, and responsibly cut taxes and invest in the actual priorities of the British people.”