Reform UK’s income tax plan will cost '£80billion', Labour MP claims

Let's cross live now to Westminster and talk to the government, to the Minister of State

for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook. Good to see you this morning, Mr Pennycook

And can we start by asking you about that breaking news in the past few moments from

Sir Mark Rowley, a significant intervention by him saying that he's in favour of putting

more details of a suspect in the public realm earlier. Is that something that you also support

Well, I note Mr Rowley's view on the subject. The government will obviously consider the

matter carefully. I think police face very challenging circumstances right now. As your

interviewer just said, there's a huge amount that goes out immediately on social media

There's a need wherever possible to try and dampen down speculation and miscommunication

So I think this is an area that does warrant review. But in general, I would lean personally

to getting the facts out where possible if the circumstances warrant. But I think it's

a decision for the police in any given circumstance. Have lessons been learnt from Southport though where information was withheld for whatever reason and when there is a vacuum of information people will make up their own minds Well lessons will always be learnt by the police and the government will obviously reflect I think in the case of Liverpool and the incident it an ongoing investigation

I don't want to speculate on that or the precise circumstances around that

And I think your viewers will understand why. As Jenny Sims, the Assistant Chief Constable of Mersey Police said

the police have got to have the space to be able to do their job to carry out that investigation. Can I ask you about the Reform UK press conference that took place yesterday

How do you feel about Nigel Farage parking his tanks on your lawn

I mean, now talking about reversing the cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners

and ending the two-child benefit cap. I mean, he described Reform UK as the party for working people

Isn't that what you're supposed to be doing? Well, my main take from the press conference yesterday was that none of it added up

and Nigel Farage doesn't add up. All of those changes taken together that he announced

run into the tens of billions of pounds. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, for example

said the proposed changes to the income tax threshold, £20,000, would cost anything up to £80 billion

I mean this is spending that makes Liz Truss look reasonable I don think Farage adds up I don think his party adds up He not a Prime Minister in waiting It not a serious intervention from my point of view

Well, our polling would suggest otherwise. GB News exclusive polling in the red wall, this is

And they were asked who their preferred candidate would be for the next Prime Minister

Nigel Farage coming out on top, 27 percent. Sir Keir Starmer at 24 percent

Do you recognise Nigel Farage as a threat? Well, I think he's got a talent for a cheap headline

but reform are now going to come under far more scrutiny than they've ever faced

and there will be scrutiny about their spending plans. As I said yesterday, just that single policy announcement yesterday

and Mr Farage's figures I think jumped about in the press conference, and he admitted they were less than robust himself

When those come under scrutiny, when costs of that magnitude, up to £80 billion for an income tax threshold change

proposed yesterday. I think when the British public see that level of detail, when the

plans are subject to that scrutiny, I have faith in their good sense and collective wisdom

to see through the circus that is reform Can I ask you about your brief housing and planning You are failing on your housing targets at the moment aren you Down 8 compared to the previous year far below the 367

new homes per year that you, as the government, have called for and that we need in this country

let's be honest. Why are you failing? No, that's wrong, I'm afraid. We're not failing on our target. We don't have an annual target

of the kind you've just specified. We very clearly and deliberately chose, going into the election

a 1.5 million homes target over the whole Parliament as part of our plan for change

and that's because we knew we were going to inherit a dire situation when it came to rates of house building

as a result of decisions made by the previous Conservative government, including the abolition of mandatory housing targets

So we are in a trough. Numbers are very low right now. We're making changes, including overhauling national planning policy

including the changes we're announcing today if I get a chance to speak to them on small and medium-sized house builders

and how we're supporting them, that will feed through but that we'll see, quite rightly, very significant increases

in house building rates towards the final years of the Parliament because we need to take ourselves out of this trop and step up those rates

OK. Thank you very much indeed, Matthew Pennycook