'Britain is broken. Reform will fix it.’ This slogan captured the feelings of millions of people in recent weeks and there is no doubt it helped Reform UK to become the first political party other than the Conservatives or Labour to win a nationally held election for more than 100 years.

Our victory was seismic. The two old political parties have been shaken to the core. They will have to get used to this new political era because Reform UK is only just getting started.

Yet that slogan did more than secure us scores of council seats across the land, the control of ten local authorities, two mayoralties and the new MP for Runcorn and Helsby following the parliamentary by-election in that constituency.

Beneath the surface, its seven words expressed a collective frustration, serving as a summary of 15 years of lived experience first under successive Tory governments until 2024 and, for the past ten months, under this Labour administration.

The fact is that Britain is broken not just in the sense that its infrastructure seems unable to cope any longer, but at a deeper level because of years of empty promises.

And when people’s trust is shattered, their spirit breaks as well.

The casual lies and careless attitudes of our political class in recent years have let people down. They are sick and tired of being taken for fools or, worse, ignored.

Wherever you go, you will hear the same complaint: nothing seems to work any more. Men and women whose only desire is to do the right thing look back a few years and know in their bones that standards have slipped steadily. This is not nostalgia on their part. This is hard reality.

'The two old political parties have been shaken to the core,' says Nigel Farage

Energy bills in Britain are the most expensive in the world. Our high streets are dying. Bins go uncollected. Millions of potholes have been left unfilled. Taxes are at record highs. Some 7.4 million people are still on NHS waiting lists, while A&E waiting times in many areas are utterly unacceptable.

Communities are terrorised by rampant levels of crime, not helped by the fact that hundreds of criminals are being released from prison early.

The legal immigration system has collapsed and, because our borders have been left wide open, illegal immigration has rocketed as well. Two-tier justice and policing have become a fact of life and, after Sir Keir Starmer’s disastrous trade deal with India this week, we now have a two-tier tax regime as well. I could go on. The political class that created this chaos is guilty of a betrayal that will never be forgotten and, most likely, will never be forgiven by the majority.

There is a commonly-held perception that those who have been in government during the past 15 years or so no longer believe in our people, our history or our culture.

They have undermined our country in pursuit of a globalist agenda that seems only to work against the interests of the British people. I am proud to be British and proud of our history, people and culture. And when I meet people and talk to them, I know that I am not alone.

That is why I believe the tide is beginning to turn, as reflected in the local elections.

Last year was very important for me personally. I became a grandfather for the first time. That made me think hard about our nation and what those of us who are alive today will pass on to future generations.

The change in my status partly explains why I returned to politics. I was driven on by three words that are at the centre of everything I do: family, community, country. I believe these things matter above everything else.

But they are under threat.

Thursday marked the 80th anniversary of VE day. That occasion showed what we can achieve when our country is united around a shared culture, identity and purpose. It also acted as a reminder of the Judeo-Christian foundations on which Britain was built. Our justice system, our freedom and our democracy are deeply rooted in these values. They must be at the heart of the renewal that is now so badly needed. So what would a Reform UK government do to improve people’s lives? Above all else, we will be the party of working people, rewarding those who pay their taxes and who play by the rules.

For too long, Conservative and Labour governments have regarded workers as a financial resource to be drained, with many of the revenues collected being handed to those who do not have a job.

This has resulted in a situation where decent people are taxed more and more heavily in order to fund the lifestyles of those who choose to work less and less. This cannot be right. My party will always put working people first.

We understand that governments do not create wealth, they spend it. That is why we would lift the starting threshold for tax to £20,000, liberating millions from the tax regime and genuinely making employment pay. It is also why we would cut taxes and regulations for small businesses. The current tax code runs to 17,000 pages and is one of the longest in the world. We will make it one of the shortest. Britain will be open for business again.

We will incentivise wealth creators to come to our country but, as the party of working people, we are ready to be a friend to the unions. We can already be judged by our deeds. Our visit to Scunthorpe last month forced the Government to step in and save over 2,000 jobs at Britain’s last functioning steel works. We will support pensioners. Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to scrap winter fuel payments was cruel and vindictive. I will never forget visiting my 99-year-old constituent Jim O’Dwyer, who flew 31 missions as part of a bomber crew during the Second World War, and hearing that he had been denied this vital piece of state assistance.

I still get angry when I think about the treachery he felt. A Reform UK government would end Labour’s war on pensioners.

We will also back farmers. Labour’s inheritance tax raid on these most hard working men and women will destroy family farms and decimate rural communities. Eliminating this tax is not all we will do. We will also increase the farming budget, ensure that supermarkets pay farmers a fair price for their produce and establish a system under which all taxpayer-funded organisations source 75 per cent of their food from British farmers.

Whether it is hard working families, pensioners or farmers, Reform UK sees inheritance tax as nothing more than a levy on assets and savings that have already been taxed. Death duties are wrong and we will abolish them for all estates worth up to £2 million.

We will improve the NHS. Reform UK would always keep the NHS free at the point of use, but with an annual investment of about £180 billion, lack of money is not the problem in our healthcare system. (Indeed, that sum is comparable with every other European country’s spending on healthcare.)

However, research shows that Britain has the lowest number of hospital beds per person in Europe and the smallest number of doctors and nurses per head. It is therefore clear that the funds directed to the NHS aren’t reaching the front line, so our reforms will focus on cutting waste, inefficiency and bureaucracy.

Our party will freeze immigration and stop the small boats crisis. Back in 2020, I was the first public figure to alert the British people to the tens of thousands of young men crossing the Channel illegally. I will be the first person to stop it. We are committed to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, so illegal immigrants who cross the Channel will be barred from making asylum claims.

The racket of family reunions and student ‘over-stayers’ must end. The universities will scream blue murder, but we are aiming for a 0 per cent population increase through immigration, and a new Minister for Deportations will oversee this.

The outrageous abuse of Britain’s long history as a country that has welcomed genuine refugees now hoovers up more than £4 billion of taxpayers’ money annually in accommodation costs alone, according to research based on figures from the Institute for Public Policy.

Just as concerning is that many illegal immigrants live in homes of multiple occupation in residential areas, causing fear among families and forcing up rents. It is barely believable that these uninvited guests are given free dental treatment while many Britons no longer even have access to an NHS dentist. Such unaffordable madness cannot continue.

We will abolish Net Zero. Last year Labour promised that, if in government, it would cut household energy bills by £300 – the very sum that most people’s bills have in fact increased by on average since then. The continued pursuit of this unachievable target by the Labour government is as despised as it is disastrous. We will revive our North Sea oil and gas industry. And we will use Rolls-Royce small modular nuclear reactors to power towns around Britain.

Throughout history, this great country has been at the forefront of some of the world’s most crucial advancements in science and technology. I want us to lead the way again.

A Reform government would strive to make Britain an AI superpower fostering innovation through significant investment in research and talent. But to do this we need to lower the cost of energy. Sir Keir Starmer just doesn’t understand this. Of course, there are other areas that must be addressed urgently as well. We will axe the 2010 Equalities Act, which has entrenched the politically correct ‘wokery’ that has split the country.

We will ban two-tier justice. Diversity hires will be consigned to the dustbin as well. And there will be no more victim groups or divide and rule. I will continue to say it loud and clear: Reform UK doesn’t care about people’s skin colour, religion or sexual preference. We want to create a meritocracy where people are judged by what they give, not by what they take. It is that simple.

Millions of Britons have lost hope. I don’t blame them. For too long, both Labour and the Conservatives have ground them down by reneging on their promises, making the wrong decisions and disrupting lives at the stroke of an ill-informed minister’s pen.

By disregarding the very people who put them into power, these parties have done immense damage. The repair job that must be done is huge, but I believe it is attainable.

I fought for Brexit and won. I never changed my beliefs and I repaid the trust that millions placed in me. Becoming your next prime minister is the biggest challenge of my life but the stakes could not be higher for all of us.

I will repay those who put their trust in me. I will not let the country down. If there is one lesson that was given by the historic election results on May 1, it is that change can happen via the ballot box. If you want Reform, you must vote for it.