Reform UK pledges to ‘have legislation drafted’ before next election
Reform UK has vowed to write draft legislation before entering government if it were elected into Downing Street, with sweeping changes to Whitehall and civil service codes to be among its top priorities.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, policy chief Zia Yusuf and the backbencher Danny Kruger said the party “don’t come with a chainsaw or a wrecking ball”, reflecting Reform’s split from Donald Trump and Javier Milei’s radical approaches to governance in the US and Argentina respectively.
Kruger said the party, which is leading in the polls, would get the civil service to ditch Whitehall buildings to move staff around the country as Reform would let leases for offices expire, which policy chiefs believe could save the government around £500m.
Kruger also said headcounts across the civil service would “fall dramatically”, indicating that the party’s target would be to get it down to pre-Brexit levels from the current level standing at some 550,000.
A central commitment Reform made was to pledge sweeping changes to ministerial and civil service codes to ensure that public officials “are answerable” to ministers.
The party’s proposals may unnerve some public officials but Kruger insisted the government would not look to damage trust between ministers and civil servants.
Reform pushes ahead with plans
“If we win the election we will have legislation drafted and ready to go, a new ministerial code and civil service code drafted, orders in council prepared, people lined up for key appointments, and it will all start on day one,” Kruger said.
“We will reform the civil service code to ensure that officials at the top of the civil service, and certainly those at the centre of government, are directly answerable to politicians, including for their jobs, and let me be very clear, the growth of the civil service will be reversed.”
“We respect the institutions of the country, the armed forces, the police, the church, the judiciary and we respect the professionalism and expertise of the people who work in them, so long as those people respect in their turn the right of Parliament, and of ministers to make the rules they work by”.
Kruger also defended his defection from the Conservative Party to Reform despite a flurry of reports throwing doubts on the party’s control over governance in Kent and other local councils.
The party has kicked out five councillors in Kent as individuals had brought Reform into “disrepute”, with four councillors suspended after Kent’s leader Linden Kemkaran was seen shouting and swearing at members.