Robert Jenrick is already showing why he was the right choice for “shadow chancellor” in Nigel Farage’s top team – and why he’s the man to send Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer packing. The former Conservative minister was this week named as part of Reform‘s leading team if the party wins a general election.

He’s now delivered his first speech about plans for the economy. Some people might have expected big, bold promises about cutting taxes and slashing spending. There was a bit of that. Reform does want to get our taxes down, but only once it is “responsible” to do so.

And it certainly wants to cut spending on welfare, including by limiting disability benefits to people who have actually been diagnosed with a medical problem, and ending benefits for foreigners living in the UK.

Mr Jenrick said: “Reform will defuse the benefits bomb set to bankrupt Britain.”

But a lot of the speech focused on things that will stay the same, and that was a deliberate choice.

Mr Jenrick said the Bank of England will no longer promote “net zero” policies and will have more people with experience of working in the private sector.

His key announcement, however, was that the Bank will remain independent. That means that experts from outside government will continue to set interest rates, one of the key economic decisions any country can make.

It doesn’t have to be this way. UK governments used to control interest rates, before former Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown gave the Bank its independence.

But Mr Jenrick is telling the world that a Reform Government will be responsible – you might even say boring – when it comes to the economy.

He also announced changes to Treasury watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), but only minor ones.

The OBR will continue to scrutinise Treasury decisions, making it much harder for any future chancellor to make silly announcements, such as slashing taxes or increasing spending without any idea how to pay for it all.

This isn’t exciting. It may not be what voters expect from loud, colourful Nigel Farage and his party.

But that’s the point. There was a message here to people in the world of finance: don’t panic! Reform won’t do anything mad. This is a party that can be trusted with the economy.

And the message to the nation as a whole was similar, because Mr Farage is aware that even voters who like him might wonder if he really has the experience and expertise to be our prime minister.

At one point, Mr Jenrick called Reform “reassuring revolutionaries”. He’s leaving the revolution to Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf, who will oversee radical changes in immigration policy, including sending illegal immigrants home, and to education spokesman Suella Braverman, who is vowing to remove trans ideology and anti-white rhetoric from classrooms.

On the economy, Mr Jenrick is providing the reassurance. It may not be exciting, but it’s the right strategy, and one that poses a real danger to Ms Reeves and Sir Keir, as well as to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

Reform is well ahead in the polls, but that doesn’t mean it has the next election in the bag. Other parties hope voters will start to feel nervous once polling day gets a little closer, and it begins to sink in that maverick Nigel and his team might actually end up running the country.

Mr Jenrick is making the idea of a Reform government feel far less frightening – which is exactly what Nigel Farage needs.

Robert Jenrick is already showing why he was the right choice for shadow chancellor in Nigel Farage’s top team – and why he’s the man to send Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer packing. The former Conservative minister was this week named as part of Reform‘s leading team if the party wins a general election.

He’s now delivered his first speech about plans for the economy. Some people might have expected big, bold promises about cutting taxes and slashing spending. There was a bit of that. Reform does want to get our taxes down, but only once it is “responsible” to do so.

And it certainly wants to cut spending on welfare, including by limiting disability benefits to people who have actually been diagnosed with a medical problem, and ending benefits for foreigners living in the UK.

Mr Jenrick said: “Reform will defuse the benefits bomb set to bankrupt Britain.”

But a lot of the speech focused on things that will stay the same, and that was a deliberate choice.

Mr Jenrick said the Bank of England will no longer promote “net zero” policies and will have more people with experience of working in the private sector.

His key announcement, however, was that the Bank will remain independent. That means that experts from outside government will continue to set interest rates, one of the key economic decisions any country can make.

It doesn’t have to be this way. UK governments used to control interest rates, before former Labour chancellor Gordon Brown gave the Bank its independence.

But Mr Jenrick is telling the world that a Reform government will be responsible – you might even say boring – when it comes to the economy.

He also announced changes to Treasury watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), but only minor ones.

The OBR will continue to scrutinise Treasury decisions, making it much harder for any future chancellor to make silly announcements, such as slashing taxes or increasing spending without any idea how to pay for it all.

This isn’t exciting. It may not be what voters expect from loud, colourful Nigel Farage and his party.

But that’s the point. There was a message here to people in the world of finance: don’t panic! Reform won’t do anything mad. This is a party that can be trusted with the economy.

And the message to the nation as a whole was similar, because Mr Farage is aware that even voters who like him might wonder if he really has the experience and expertise to be our prime minister.

At one point, Mr Jenrick called Reform “reassuring revolutionaries”. He’s leaving the revolution to Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf, who will oversee radical changes in immigration policy, including sending illegal immigrants home, and to education spokesman Suella Braverman, who is vowing to remove trans ideology and anti-white rhetoric from classrooms.

On the economy, Mr Jenrick is providing the reassurance. It may not be exciting, but it’s the right strategy, and one that poses a real danger to Ms Reeves and Sir Keir, as well as to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

Reform is well ahead in the polls, but that doesn’t mean it has the next election in the bag. Other parties hope voters will start to feel nervous once polling day gets a little closer, and it begins to sink in that maverick Nigel and his team might actually end up running the country.

Mr Jenrick is making the idea of a Reform government feel far less frightening – which is exactly what Nigel Farage needs.