After courting right-wing voters, Nigel Farage has now openly turned his attention to working-class Britons. On Tuesday, May 27, the head of the far-right Reform UK party unveiled policy proposals that could well have come from the Labour government itself – had Keir Starmer not, until now, pursued a policy that is nearly conservative. Farage, whose party is leading in the polls (with 28% of voting intentions according to a YouGov study conducted on June 2, ahead of Labour at 22% and the Conservatives at 18%), pledged to abolish the cap on child benefits. Currently set at two children, the policy dictates that families receive no additional support for a third child or beyond.

This cap was introduced by the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2013, and child welfare groups have long called for its removal, arguing that it is the single fastest way to lift hundreds of thousands of British households out of poverty.

Speaking from the magnificent library of a London gentlemen's club just steps from Downing Street, Farage insisted his party wanted to go "much further to encourage people to have children, to make it easier for them to have children" in the United Kingdom. The country has "lost our sense of focus of just how important family is," added the veteran of British politics. A former member of the European Parliament, Farage was the first to campaign for Brexit; his remarks are clearly tinged with natalist sentiment. He cautioned, however, that more generous child benefits are "not aimed at those that come into the country and suddenly decide to have a lot of children," making clear his anti-immigration stance.

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