Nigel Farage described Reform UK’s policies as “aspirations” in a Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday night.
Fraser Nelson, the former editor of The Spectator magazine, asked whether the Reform leader could end up in Downing Street after the next election amid a surge in support for the party, which has opened up a significant poll lead over Labour in recent months.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates Reform’s policies could cost up to £80 billion a year.
In recent weeks, Mr Farage has unveiled a string of spending commitments including abolishing the two-child benefit cap and reopening blast furnaces at steelworks in an attempt to win over voters in traditional Labour areas.
The cost of Reform’s policies has led Sir Keir Starmer to compare the plans to Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-budget in an attempt to win back voters from the party.
Mr Farage told the Dispatches programme: “Most of what I’m giving at the moment is direction of travel…We’re going to be careful because too many fixed promises have been made and not delivered.”
When asked about his party’s immigration pledges, he said: “All of politics is an aspiration if you think about it… every manifesto, every contract is actually an aspiration because you can never tell – a war could break out all sort of things could happen”.
“I understand that between now and the next election there’ll be lots of scrutiny about numbers, about what we say, about what do, but let’s make it clear that in terms of direction of travel. We are the party of working people. We want to reward people who are in work.
Mr Nelson asked: “But you accept that right now the figures don’t add up, because you say it’s not time to make them add up by the next election?”
The Reform leader replied: “Rachel Reeves’s numbers don’t add up! Now there is a massive debate and argument around the cost of net-zero, I get that. We’ll have lots of fights. I need you to do that for me. Well, it could be 30, 40 billion.”
Mr Farage’s comments open the door to some of his party’s manifesto pledges being watered down or abandoned.
It comes after Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, backed away from Reform’s pledge to enact £90 billion of tax cuts in 100 days in an interview with The Telegraph earlier this month.
Mr Farage said his party must run the councils it won at the local elections well if it is to have a good chance of winning power nationally.
He said: “How we perform will make a material difference to how we’re viewed running up to the next general election. Of that I have no doubt.”
Mr Farage also vowed to put “family, community and country” at the heart of everything Reform do if elected.
He rejected claims his party is divisive and denied he had ever used “race baiting” as a tactic.
He said: “I’ve never done that. I promise you, you go through 25 years of speeches and you won’t find it.
“I think if you look at what we say, if you look at [what] we do, which is more important than what you say, in terms of how I operate, who I work with, who rises to the top and takes positions in the party, you’ll see we’re a very meritocratic organisation… I’ve been clear on this for 25 years.
“All the political iterations that I’ve run, the campaigns that I have been part of, I’ve never wanted anything to do with extremist politics in any way. Ever, ever, ever.”
Meanwhile, a YouGov poll has found working class voters are abandoning Labour for Reform.
More than half of 2024 Labour voters (52 per cent) who would now back Reform live in working-class households, it found.
The YouGov survey of more than 10,000 people found broken or undelivered promises were the main reason for people deserting Sir Keir Starmer’s party.