Reform UK would scrap the net zero drive and use the money saved to improve the NHS, Richard Tice said this morning.
Setting out Reform’s plans for the NHS at a press conference in Westminster, Mr Tice said his party would deliver zero waiting lists in the health service in two years.
He said: “Yes, it is going to take a bit of extra money but we are not going to give it to bungling NHS bureaucrats.
“The cost of the extra staffing, the tax relief, we estimate is about £5 billion. The extra capacity that the NHS buys from the independent sector and more productivity, working seven days a week within the NHS, that is about £7 billion. And then the tax relief on independent healthcare that will grow rapidly… that will be about £3 billion.
“With a bit of contingency you get to about £17 billion. You might say ‘Richard, where on earth are you going to find that from?’ Well, I have got news for you, it is actually quite easy you see, no one gas been told about the true cost of net zero…”
Mr Tice said Reform had estimated that the cost of the net zero drive would be about £30 billion a year.
He said: “We have a choice in this country, it seems to me. A pretty clear choice. Do we want zero waiting lists in two years and to keep them there, that is the Reform choice. Or do we want net zero CO2 emissions in 25 years? That is the Labour choice.”