Introduction

Reform UK has torpedoed Jeremy Hunt’s budget as “utter garbage”, detonating a massive new crisis for the collapsing Tories. 

Reform UK leader Richard Tice is savagely exploiting Conservative turmoil after their hopeless budget flop. 

With the Tories intellectually bankrupt after 12+ years in power, Reform UK’s optimistic patriotism is electrifying voters desperate for bold change. 

Reform UK believes sweeping away the enfeebled Tory old guard is now essential for Britain’s revival. 

Tice roars that only Reform UK has the guts and vision to resuscitate left-behind communities and unshackle enterprise. 

Once rebel outsiders, Reform UK smells its moment has arrived to smash the two-party racket for good!

“Garbage Budget”

Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn budget has been met with widespread criticism, including a scathing denunciation from Reform UK. The budget, which included some tax cuts but also tax hikes and spending constraints, has been blasted as inadequate in the face of mounting economic challenges facing the UK.

In a fiery statement, Reform UK Deputy Leader Ben Habib lambasted the budget as “utter garbage” and accused Hunt and the Conservatives of “trashing the UK.” Habib slammed Hunt for failing to provide real relief for businesses and working people struggling with the cost of living crisis. He singled out the continuation of ‘Net Zero’ climate policies as an especially damaging burden hampering economic recovery.

Habib’s crisp condemnation encapsulated the frustration of many who hoped for bold measures from Hunt to energise growth and competitiveness. Instead, the budget has been widely panned as an underwhelming tinkering that does little to address either short-term crises or long-term decline.

Critics across the political spectrum have highlighted the budget’s glaring flaws and missed opportunities.

At the heart of the widespread dismay is a sense the budget lacked imagination or vision. Hunt opted for fiscal tweaks over major surgery, clinging to comfortable orthodoxies rather than pursuing bold reforms. Constraint rather than dynamism defined his approach.

The budget continued the Conservatives’ piecemeal, ad hoc approach that has left Britain’s economy languishing. Hunt offered no grand plan to empower enterprise, ignite innovation or liberate growth. His handiwork has pleased almost no one outside Westminster’s establishment bubble.

What The Polls Say About The Tories

For Reform UK, the budget symbolised why a fundamental political realignment is required to revitalise Britain. The Conservatives seem intellectually exhausted, devoid of fresh thinking after over a decade in power. Hunt’s budget obeyed the status quo rather than challenging it.

The fierce backlash Hunt’s budget has provoked seems certain to deepen the Conservatives’ dire polling woes. Their support has cratered to historic lows below 20 percent after months of chaos.

Rishi Sunak’s subsequent appointment failed to durably revive Tory fortunes. Reform UK has increasingly benefited from the widespread disillusionment with the Conservatives in their traditional heartlands.

Polling this month from Ipsos showed Reform UK doubling its backing to 8 percent. Among voters under 35. Alarm bells are ringing in Conservative headquarters about Reform UK poaching more of their disenchanted base.

Hunt’s lacklustre budget has only strengthened perceptions that the Conservatives are intellectually exhausted and politically adrift. It reeked of a government that has run out of momentum, ideas and energy after over twelve years in office.

This was exemplified by Hunt’s bizarre focus on improving public sector productivity as a central plank.

Focus groups showed the few popular measures in the budget like National Insurance cuts did not offset its glaring inadequacies. Tory supporter Simon lamented “they’ve had thirteen years already, haven’t they? Thirteen years and they’re constantly talking about why they haven’t got it right.”

Another former Tory voter complained that with Conservatives “What they give with one hand they take away with the other.” This weary disillusionment with a government that seems to promise much while changing little is propelling Reform UK’s rise.

Reform UK’s surging poll numbers validate its claim to be Britain’s true opposition, filling the vacuum left by Labour’s ideological wilderness years. Reform UK promises the bold reforms needed to shake up the broken status quo long-defended by a stagnant political duopoly.

The feebleness of Hunt’s budget only reinforces the urgent hunger for real change. Reform UK’s leaders feel these intensifying demands for something different can sweep them into power, promising a clean break with the sclerotic establishment.

The Tories ECHR Plot

For Tory MPs facing electoral oblivion, Reform UK represents an existential threat capable of supplanting them as the voice of Conservative-leaning Britain. Hence renewed plotting for ways to ward off electoral disaster.

One radical proposal gaining support amongst Tory factions is calling a referendum on quitting the European Convention on Human Rights alongside the next general election. This ‘Super Thursday’ double vote could rally Reform UK supporters around defending the referendum result.

The calculation is that a joint referendum-election could channel Reform UK voters towards Conservatives as the only party that would implement quitting the ECHR. Some Tory MPs even suggest Boris Johnson front the Leave campaign to directly ‘square off’ against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

However, this high-risk strategy worries other Conservatives who feel it could backfire by boosting overall turnout. But with polls signalling unprecedented doom, it signifies the extraordinary remedies under discussion before Tory wipeout.

Reform UK may represent the greatest threat, but the Conservatives must also contend with anger within their ranks. 

Minister Paul Scully denounced the parachuting of outsider Susan Hall to stand as London mayoral candidate rather than selecting a local champion.

Scully’s very public resignation underscored discontent at the Conservative top’s poor political judgement and weak campaigning abilities. It hinted at a growing movement of MPs prepared to publicly vent long-bottled frustrations.

No Hope For Sunak

The latest Ipsos polling encapsulated the profound electoral hole the Conservatives now find themselves in thanks to accumulated blunders. It showed support plunging below 20 percent, the lowest since records began in 1978. Labour leads by 27 percentage points.

Among all adults, an astonishing 83 percent now express dissatisfaction with the Conservative government. Faith in Rishi Sunak has also collapsed, with his approval sinking to just 19 percent. Reform UK has doubled its support to 8 percent on the back of this dissatisfaction.

Once internal polls show them losing their seats, more Tory MPs may be tempted to abandon their silence and speak out. Their livelihoods depend on avoiding a crushing election defeat that could consign them to the political wilderness for a generation.

Habib’s caustic reaction to Hunt’s budget captured the growing appetite for the bold remedies promised by Reform UK rather than more stale tinkering. With the Conservatives’ eclipse accelerating, Tice and Reform UK feel power beckons if they can provide a clear lead.

And the surest indicator Conservative MPs know the end of their dominance is approaching is the proliferation of exotic survival schemes. Proposing a Referendum-Election ‘Super Thursday’ is the ultimate act of desperation.

Whatever the next election date, for Tice and Reform UK it will provide the opportunity of a political lifetime. One era in British politics seems to be crumbling, but the shape of what comes next remains profoundly uncertain.

Dominance by new forces always emerges from the decay of the old. Tice insists Reform UK now represents the vanguard of revival.

With the Conservatives corroding so rapidly, Tice is increasingly bullish that Reform UK can complete an insurgency journey all the way from the fringes to the frontline. If the Tories’ existential plight deepens, perhaps not even a referendum-election ‘Super Thursday’ can halt Reform UK’s march.