'Burning the Right Wicker Man': Starmer, Reeves, McSweeney—and the Welfare Implosion Reform Still Can’t Exploit

One point I brushed over in my previous piece deserves more attention: what, if anything, Reform proposes to do about welfare should it ever get close to power.

Like Labour once did in opposition, Reform seems to have learned that saying little can pay off—let the government implode while you stay silent, offering little better yourself.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Reform offers no credible solution to the welfare conundrum.

Oddly quiet during last week’s welfare chaos—when the government was flailing and MPs revolting—was Nigel Farage. Normally, he’d be first on the scene, camera-ready. But not this time.

That silence wasn’t accidental. Reform has no plan to bring the spiralling welfare budget under control. And what it did propose in the 2024 general election—through its so-called “Contract”—was arguably worse than Labour’s attempts now in 2025.

That said—