Robert Jenrick to outline Reform UK plans for Bank of England and OBR
Nigel Farage named his top team on Tuesday, which included Conservative defectors Mr Jenrick and Suella Braverman.
Net zero efforts have become a “distraction” for the Bank of England and the budget watchdog overestimated the benefits of low-skilled migration, Robert Jenrick is expected to say in his first major outing as Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman.
Mr Jenrick will pledge not to abolish the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), instead promising “reform”, and will say the Bank would remain independent if he were in No 11.
Nigel Farage named his top team on Tuesday, barely a month after Mr Jenrick left the Conservative front bench, where he was shadow justice secretary.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who also left the Conservatives for Reform last month, was made her new party’s education, skills and equalities spokeswoman.
In a City of London pitch, Mr Jenrick will accuse Labour and the Conservatives of “taking more of the British people’s money and spraying it around, with no regard for how hard they’ve worked for it or their priorities”.
He is expected to say the OBR overestimated the benefits of low-skilled migration, adding: “Everything Reform promise will be fully costed.
“And because we’re confident about the approach we will take, we’re happy to have our homework marked.
“The OBR is far from perfect but the impetus for its creation was a desire to instil fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse.
“Rather than abolish it, we will reform it.
“We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion.
“And we’ll run competitions for superforecasters to join the body and pay competitive salaries to those who most accurately model the impact of Treasury decisions.”
On the Bank of England, Reform UK will focus on “keeping inflation low”, according to Mr Jenrick.
He will say: “We will strip the Bank of distractions which have been loaded on to it.
“That includes the requirement for the Bank to help the transition to net zero.
“And we will demand that the Bank is a more open institution, and the private sector better represented on the Monetary Policy Committee.”
Mr Jenrick previously served as a Treasury minister during Theresa May’s premiership and was communities secretary under Boris Johnson.
Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said: “Robert Jenrick is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes but he can’t hide from his appalling record in government.”
Mr Tomlinson said Mr Farage’s party had “already made billions of pounds in unfunded spending commitments”.
He continued: “Jenrick and his former Tory party smashed family finances and he’d do the same again through Reform.
“While Reform and their Tory defectors have talked down and trashed our economy, this Labour Government has made the fair choices to fix our economy.
“Our action has seen inflation and interest rates falling, the economy growing, and wages rising – putting money back in people’s pockets.”
Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Jenrick claims Reform are happy to have their homework marked, yet they still haven’t explained the £10.5 billion black hole in their pubs plan, and when challenged on it they said they were ‘not interested in the numbers’.
“Make no mistake, Reform’s back-of-a-fag-packet numbers would not withstand contact with OBR scrutiny.
“Their recklessness would leave our economy weaker.”
Sir Mel referred to comments which Mr Farage made last month, when the Reform leader told The Telegraph: “We have to discuss whether we would be better off without the OBR – I am giving that very serious thought.”
The shadow chancellor said: “It’s the same old story with Reform – say one thing, then row back as soon as questions are asked.
“They have no plan and no principles.”
Mr Jenrick and Ms Braverman joined the Reform UK front bench team alongside Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader and business, trade and energy spokesman, and Zia Yusuf, the home affairs spokesman.
