‘Britain Is Broke’: Farage Savages Healey’s ‘Timid’ Budget as Debt Tops £3 Trillion

News | By Matt, Editor

“Britain is broke.” That was Nigel Farage’s verdict on John Healey’s first Budget on Wednesday 28 October. The Reform UK leader called it “timid” and said only deep spending cuts, starting with welfare, could fix the nation’s finances. (Reform UK, 28 October 2026)

The numbers back his alarm. National debt has passed £3 trillion for the first time. Debt interest is heading for £160 billion a year. The Chancellor’s answer was a £100 energy payment, a bank tax and higher taxes on landlords and savers. (ONS; OBR; HM Treasury)

Key facts

• Debt: £3,005bn at the end of September, the first time over £3 trillion (provisional). (ONS)
• Debt interest: £109bn in 2025-26, forecast to reach £160bn in 2031-32. (OBR, October 2026)
• Borrowing: about £18bn higher this year than the OBR forecast in March. (OBR)
• Growth: cut to 1% in 2027, half a point below the March forecast. (OBR)
• Pay: “no growth in real earnings in 2027 and 2028”. (OBR)
• Tax: the tax take is forecast to break its post-war record of 37.2% of GDP in 2027-28. (OBR)

What Healey did

Mr Healey blamed “global economic storms” and the war in the Middle East. “Those are the storms we face. We cannot wish them away,” he told MPs. (Hansard, 28 October 2026)

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He announced a £2.6 billion Household Energy Payment: £100 for up to 20 million homes in council tax bands A to D in England, from January. To pay for it, the bank surcharge doubles from 3% to 6% for 15 months. (HM Treasury)

He extended the 5p fuel duty cut to July 2027 and raised machine games duty from 20% to 25% on higher-stakes machines. The National Living Wage rises 3.9% to £13.21 an hour from April. (HM Treasury)

Landlords and savers were hit again. Tax on property and savings income rises by a further two points from April 2027, on top of the two-point rise in last year’s Budget. The lifetime limit for Business Asset Disposal Relief, the entrepreneurs’ tax break, was halved from £1 million to £500,000. (HM Treasury)

Grocery tariffs were cut on more than 100 food products. The Treasury says that saves consumers £120m to £185m a year, or up to £595m counting June’s cuts. At most, that is about six pence a day per household. (HM Treasury; BBN)

There were no new welfare cuts. Mr Healey said reforms would follow reports due next month, adding: “we will bring down the welfare bill, and we will do it in a Labour way.” (Hansard)

HMRC gets new bank account powers

Mr Healey gave HMRC “stronger powers to collect overdue tax from those who can clearly afford to pay but ignore repeated contact”. (Hansard) The Budget documents say HMRC will be able to recover lower-value tax debts straight from bank accounts, from July 2029. (HM Treasury)

Mr Farage said: “HMRC can now seize money from your bank account without even having a meeting. As someone who’s been de-banked, this sets a dark precedent. Reform will fight this at every turn.” (Reform UK)

Farage: cut spending, cut welfare

“We are in a deep financial hole. Britain is broke. Only a radical plan can begin to do anything about it. That’s why we’ve set out spending cuts of £40bn in the first financial year of a Reform government, rising to £80bn over five years. Not everyone’s going to like it. It’s going to be tough. There’ll be protests.”

Nigel Farage, Reform UK, 28 October 2026

He promised to cut energy bills by “£250, on average, permanently”, to scrap income tax on overtime for full-time workers earning under £75,000, and to raise the tax-free allowance to £15,000. “Only Reform have the guts to do the one thing that is needed and cut welfare spending,” he said. (Reform UK; BBN; BBN explainer; The Telegraph)

On X he added: “By 2031 we’ll be spending £160bn/year on debt interest alone… We are on a fiscal knife-edge.” (The Guardian) The OBR forecast confirms the rise, from £124bn this year to £160bn in 2031-32. (OBR)

Mr Farage watched the Budget from his office after his seat card was moved. (BBN)

Jenrick: a “nothing burger”

Reform’s Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said: “This nothing burger Budget didn’t have anything to say about cutting the ballooning benefits bill or the eye-watering cost of borrowing.” Healey, he said, was “fiddling while the economy burns”. (The Telegraph)

Former IFS director Paul Johnson, quoted by Reform, called Labour’s plan for later spending cuts “the can being kicked down the road”. (Reform UK) The OBR says “unprotected” day-to-day spending could face a 2.6% a year squeeze in the next spending review period. (OBR)

Our view

This section is opinion.

Debt has passed £3 trillion. Interest is heading for £160 billion a year. Labour’s answer is a £100 payment, higher taxes on landlords, savers and banks, and pennies off the shopping bill. On welfare, just a promise to act later.

Workers face years without a real pay rise, yet the benefits bill is left for another day. And the taxman gets new powers to reach into bank accounts. Farage is right that only real cuts to spending can turn this round. Labour won’t make them.

FAQ

What did Farage say about the Budget?

He called it “timid” and said: “Britain is broke.” (Reform UK)

Who gets the £100 energy payment?

Households in council tax bands A to D in England, from January 2027. (HM Treasury)

Can HMRC take money from bank accounts?

From July 2029, for lower-value debts owed by people who can afford to pay but repeatedly fail to. (HM Treasury)

Sources

• Hansard, 28 October 2026: Financial Statement and Budget Report
• HM Treasury: Budget 2026; OBR: Economic and fiscal outlook, October 2026
• ONS: Public sector finances, September 2026
• Reform UK, 28 October 2026: Farage and Jenrick reaction
• The Telegraph Budget live, 28 October 2026; The Telegraph, 24 October 2026; The Guardian Budget live, 28 October 2026
• Main image: Nigel Farage speaking in February 2025. Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).