the shadow chancellor, rachel reeves, is pledging to invest more than seven billion pounds, to try to unlock further funding from the private sector. meanwhile, the conservatives say labour's policy of banning new licences for oil and gas in the north sea will cost billions in lost tax. labour says its plans to close loopholes in the windfall tax on energy companies, that it says will raise llions. in about an hour, reform uk will release its election manifesto — which the party is calling a "contract" with voters. we'll have more on that in a moment. the liberal democrats are having a day at the beach... while calling for an expansion of fuel duty relief for rural motorists. leader sir ed davey visited a south devon beach — taking off his shoes and socks and building sand castles with children and their parents. as we said, nigel farage will launch reform uk's election manifesto in the next hour — which the party is calling a "contract" with voters. reform is promising a freeze on non—essential immigration and cuts to income tax. the launch will be in south wales — mr farage says he wants to highlight what he described as labour's poor record there. a reform candidate has quit the party after it emerged he'd previously urged people to vote for the extreme—right british national party. grant st—clair armstrong reportedly shared support for the bnp on a blogpost in 2010. he has since walked back the comments, labelling the party �*disgusting'. life to the reform party once, you can see john life to the reform party once, you can seejohn sticking photos of nigel farage, you will be launching the manifesto for the party, it is also something the refund particle a contract with voters. goad contract with voters. good afternoon- _ contract with voters. good afternoon. guess - contract with voters. good afternoon. guess who - contract with voters. good afternoon. guess who is l contract with voters. good - afternoon. guess who is back. back again. cheering i did not for one moment think i would be standing here doing this ever again. would be standing here doing this everagain. but would be standing here doing this ever again. but i am and i have come out of retirement and doing it because i genuinely feel that britain is broken, that nothing actually works any more, we are broken economically as our national debt explodes, our debt repayment is over £90 billion a year, interestingly the same amount as the education budget. it is that generation that will pay for our mistakes for years to come. i feel increasingly be unbroken socially and it doesn't matter what crime statistics the government quotes, we all feel less safe on our streets and we have reached a point where most crime even goes unreported. i am in absolutely no doubt we are in decline culturally, we have begun to forget who we are, what artist that is, what we stand for, we have put up is, what we stand for, we have put up with the minds of our children from a young age right through university being poisoned about what this country is and what it represents. all this would be manageable if there were some clear political solutions. manageable if there were some clear politicalsolutions. i manageable if there were some clear political solutions. i think our politics as perhaps as broken as all the other factors i politics as perhaps as broken as all the otherfactors i have politics as perhaps as broken as all the other factors i have listed and i was very struck over the past couple of weeks i have been involved in debates with party leaders and main representatives, one on the bbc and one on itv which descended into and one on itv which descended into a shouting match between penny mordaunt and angela rayner and yet when you listen to what they were arguing over it seems to me that the more they argued the more they seemed the same. we are going through a breakdown of trust in politics where manifestos one after another can keep making the same promises and no one believes frankly a word that they say. which is why today specifically is not a manifesto launch because if i say to you manifesto you are immediately associating that with a lie and that associating that with a lie and that as holy unsurprising. there are many millions of people notjust disappointed over manifestos but a lot of brexit voters, millions of brexit voters genuinely disappointed, they believe that by voting for brexit and the reason resort the turnout on the scale be dead as we had got a grip of mass migration into britain, we get back proper control of our borders and none of that has happened, the very opposite has happened so that our feelings of disenchantment as well. they also run throughout millions of small businesses, you would have thought at least the regulations will get easier. some people say that as a failure of brexit, it isn't, it is a failure of a sovereign government to implement mural of the and indeed its own manifesto. there is also a complete light of leadership. i am not going to say personally abusive things about keir starmer or rishi sunak, i will leave that to the rest of the establishment to biereth about me because i couldn't care less, it doesn't matter. i have even produced people throwing things at me. there is a lack of leadership, people actually need some sense of being inspired, some sense believing that somebody who believes in what they see and says what they believe and will show a way for want for the country. i do not believe we have any of that either so i have come back into this because i think that is now the most enormous gap that exists between the two big westminster parties and i say westminster parties and i say westminster because it is very much westminster because it is very much westminster and oxford university thinking that dominates these parties, a huge gap between that and the conversations i hear being had by families around the country. i can see it before the brexit referendum this huge gap between our political class and the people and the brexit result, the shock of the result showed us that existed. i believe that gap to be even bigger thanit believe that gap to be even bigger than it was before the referendum in 2016. we have chosen to launch our contract with you. we are not pretending that we were when this general election, we are a very new political party and we would have much preferred the selection to take place in october or november. i personally was a bit crestfallen additionally by what rishi sunak said when he announced july four but we are running very fast to catch up and i genuinely believe our campaign has some momentum around the country, we have seen that in some of the opinion polls and particularly encouraging a rapidly increasing number of young people, 18-24 increasing number of young people, 18—24 age group are coming true reform uk cause. this is not something with which we will govern the country that is not possible and the country that is not possible and the selection although the selection is for our party and me the first important step on the road to 2029. our aim and important step on the road to 2029. 0uraim and ambition important step on the road to 2029. our aim and ambition is to establish a bridgehead in parliament and become a real opposition to a labour government. i say that because i cannot see ed davey providing real opposition because actually i many fundamental policies you liberal democrats and labour do not vary very much. and i cannot see the conservatives providing opposition because they do not agree on anything, they spent most of their days arguing amongst themselves and they are split down the middle when it comes to policy. we are certainly split down the middle and terms of their attitude towards me. suella braverman fluctuate proposing particle manage over the weekend whilst rod cameron they dragged him back, and we had david cameron generally being fairly abusive but that sums up where the conservative party as so br a party that knows what we believe in. we get the fundamental principles of what we are about, we believe in the family, community, country. we know exact what we believe in and our aim is to provide clear and consistent and growing leadership during the course of the next limit, notjust in parliament but around the country as well. it is my aim be turned this into a big genuine mass movement of people and i believe that is actually highly achievable. we have chosen to launch our contract and wheels which seems highly appropriate because labour have been in power here since 1997 so perhaps there are some lessons we can learn from 25 years of labour government and wheels and what we might be looking forward to in a few weeks when sir keir starmer becomes our prime minister. and wales taxes are higher, counciltax prime minister. and wales taxes are higher, council tax is higher on average about £500 per median property than in england. enter listing that when the question is being asked of keir starmer on council tax they have precious little to say. people in wales pay more taxes and spending per capita is higher in wales than in england. there is more money being spent on you on public services than that is on the other side of the bridge. those debates i have been in or anyone seems to talk about is more investment in the nhs and public services but what they really mean is they will spend more of your taxes and perhaps that would not matter effort led to better delivery. the figures and wales are truly astonishing, waiting times and wales on the nhs are exactly 50% longer than they are on the other side of the bridge. education which has drifted and wales rapidly and a left at pc book direction and look at the tables on english and mathematics, you will see wales has fallen further behind england, not personally but i believe angled is very good. a labour government and wheels just as your freedoms and choices and rights to buy and many other schemes which damage aspiration particularly for young people who want to get on. and of course the crowning glory of 25 years of welsh government and wales, the imposition of 20 mph speed lots. it led to one of the most astonishing petitions you have ever seen, the percentage of welsh people that say that petition, i have never seen a petition like it although we are rather used to all of that with london. it gives us some idea that an terms of outright policy labour is not very different to the conservatives. it is just more than competent. itjust waste even more money than conservative governments do but here is the point, about things going so badly wrong and wales over 25 years, there has been no proper clear consistent opposition voice, the conservatives and the senate had been feeble to say the least and that is the argument, wales gives osteopathic example of what i am talking about, we need to have good strong opposition that can mobilise people and very large numbers. we know what we stand for, we are for control of borders and promoting genuine economic growth, we are for helping the little guy. millions of men and women trying to get on to do their own thing and yet a liberal and conservative party that only ever listens to the giant global incorporates. we are about trying to restore trust in politics. you might dislike what we say, you may not want to vote for what we say but at least we do say what we mean. and you want to have an absolutely radical rethink of the way in which our public services are run and that includes the nhs. it has been difficult to have any conversation about the nhs over the 25 years i have been in politics without someone pointing and screaming that you want to privatise it. all we want is an nhs that is fully at the point of delivery that actually works and toby get the i don't think most people could give a damn about. we would like the state to take far less of our money that it is currently doing and will go on taking more and more. i have said from the start of this should be the immigration election. i have a doubt about that, i think the population explosion, the impact it has had on peoples lives as the dominant issue. how can you discuss nhs waiting list without discussing the fact that the population has risen by 6 million people since david cameron came to power in 2010. how can you talk about a shortage of housing permitted to build a new dwelling every two minutes just to cope with current levels of net migration. how can you talk about any of these things shall be believe this is what we should be talking about but the others would rather not discuss it because the conservatives are attempting for a fifth manifesto in attempting for a fifth manifesto in a role to tell us the owl reducing the numbers. but then they told us in 2010 and 2015 and 2017 they would reduce net migration to tens of thousands a year, they promised in 2019 with brexit controls we would mass of otherjust the levels of unskilled labour coming into britain, it is running and getting on knit three quarters of a million a year. when you look at those have come and stayed one and 30 people on the streets of britain today have come here and the last two years alone. never before in history have we ever seen literally anything like it and as for labour, it is extraordinary, they launched their manifesto with a six key priorities, not even mentioning emigration, not even mentioning the impact on peoples lives so we want to have a proper and honest debate about it and we believe an overall freeze or net migration numbers is what we need for a few years to help us at least try to catch up. we also have to say it is only right and proper that you only get benefits in this country once you have been here for five years, 0beid the law and pager taxes. these are policies that are discriminatory in favour of british taxpayers and british people. if you go to what can i still not get benefits or dental care, you will have to pay into the system and obey the law. we are doing what a good sensible country should, recognising that the first duty of the british government as to its own people and not to anybody else and as far as dover is concerned i was going out into the channel 4 years ago filming the small boats and predicting that vast numbers would arrive unless we change policy and deported people, something we used to do until 2010. the last years of the labour government we were deporting up to 40,000 people a year who had come illegally, we have lost our way and part of these and for that as a court and strasberg that has become increasingly activist, even interfered with the swiss government telling them they have an obligation under international law to maintain its zero dollars is. the swiss government have decided to ignore them but we think the only way to fully restore sovereignty to decide who can come in and who can stay is by leaving that european court of human rights. it is completely out of date, not serving the purpose which we signed up to over 70 years ago. there is all leading on to the cost of living crisis, rents are up by an average 20—25% across the whole of the uk since 2021, is it any wonder with an exporting population that rates are going up so a freeze on overall numbers would at least begin to reduce the pressure. and one of the biggest bills families face in the lower your overall income as the bigger this particular bell matters is energy. whether you are filling your car or paying for heating, and we have been following their zero policies championed by today's a enthusiastically embraced by boris johnson and that you copied by the labour party, they are self—destructive, look at what it is doing to industry. what is happening to steel—making in south wales, it is going but somehow government thinks that is good. because we have reduced the amount of carbon a oxide be omitted but to be don't, we just export the production of that co2 as the goods are made someone else in this case by many secondary steel and then be import goods back so we want to get rid of the subsidies that are paid to green energy companies by loading the taxes on the electra city bills of everybody in this country and we have been doing this for the best part of 20 years. we also have to try and find a way people can be better off. national government, opposition, much of the media seems to want to bow down to the god of gdp, it arose last year, isn't that great? if you massively increase the population it is not surprising with more people that the overall size of the economy would grow. but here is the key, coinciding with record levels of migration into britain we have now seen six consecutive quarters of gdp per head falling. we are getting poorer, the mass import of cheap unskilled foreign labour may work for multinational companies who want cheap labour and could not give a damn about the social consequences but it is not working and we very much want to be a party that is on the side of working people. and this is perhaps the most transformative thing, in this document which has been what on for months, richard deserves the credit for this not me, but the most innovative thing policy n here is to raise the level at which people start paying tax to £20,000 a year. why? number one, it would take 7 million people out of the tax system altogether, a devilishly complicated tax system. that would be a good thing for those on low pay, a good thing for many pensioners they have a small private income supplementing their state income supplementing their state income and being dragged into the tax system. not a very good policy for local accountants because they love the complexity, not a good policy possible solvents because we could probably get rid of a few with the suffocation of this but also a huge incentive to get people back to work. i will talk a bit more about that at the end. we also think inheritance tax and it depends where you live and your property values, this is not as relevant as it perhaps as in the home counties, an average detached house in south london is now attracting inheritance tax, this was never designed for people in the middle, it was for those at the upper income scale so we go to £2 million before anybody paid inheritance tax so certification matters to us. it is wealth creation, labour have launched their manifesto talking about wealth creation but identity anything in the out to create wealth. that is because our particle class as stuck in the global corporate mindset. i saw this in brussels with the influence of big businesses lobbying to dominate the way totally that politicians thought, the unholy triumvirate of big business, big banks and big politics and we genuinely are on the side of the 5.5 million men and women running their own small companies and acting as sole traders who feel government as their enemy whatever the cannot of the rosettes. look at these crazy rules, how difficult it is for self employed people across the uk, figure about what they did to corporation tax last year putting it up by 30% and being surprised that many small medium businesses do not have as much capital to reinvest incentive to make profit as they had before. the other group of people who feel betrayed by the likes of brexit delivery was the product population who voted for numbers the business community who genuinely thought and hoped that by getting rid and streamlining so many european union rules that their lives would get easier, they have not. the government blames the pandemic because of that we could not do these things but i could argue that don't have to lock us down repeatedly, once was, with more than enough but we have not and rishi sunak and others promised to get rid of eu was, they have not done it and in some sectors the egg to the authorities in britain have made life for men and women running small businesses ev