Reform UK pledges to cut data rules and curb liabilities for non-executives

Reform UK is sharpening its pitch to businesses as part of a push to replace the Conservatives as the main rival to Labour, pledging to cut data regulation and curb civil liabilities for non-executive directors at small companies.

Nigel Farage’s party will on Wednesday announce its support for scrapping the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a move likely to be supported by tech and AI companies, but also reducing red tape for smaller businesses.

In a speech, Reform’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick is expected to say that if Reform won power, it would cap potential penalties in relation to civil liabilities for non-executive directors at £50,000 or three times average remuneration at companies with revenue of less than £15mn.

He is also expected to pledge substantial tax breaks for family members investing in new businesses founded by their children and grandchildren, if Reform forms the next government.

The set of policies comes after a summer when the rightwing populist party has been overtaken by Labour in some opinion polls and tried to flesh out its economic offering amid growing discontent among voters with the economy.

Reform is increasingly fighting on economic ground traditionally occupied by the Tories, the UK’s official opposition and main party of the right, while seeking not to alienate potential voters in poorer areas of the country.

In recent weeks, the party has promised to increase the level of revenue that triggers VAT for small businesses to £150,000 from £90,000 and said it would remove income tax on overtime if elected.

It has also pledged to reverse former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ increase in employer national insurance contributions in the October 2024 Budget.

Under Reform’s plan, GDPR, which gives individuals specific rights over their personal data, would be replaced with regulations modelled on New Zealand that it described as the “lightest-touch regime still recognised as being ‘adequate’ by the EU”.

“GDPR has strangled small businesses and tech firms alike in a web of unnecessary regulation,” Jenrick said.

The move is likely to face criticism, however, if it allowed AI companies freer use of users’ personal data. Companies including OpenAI and ride-hailing group Uber have been handed substantial fines over breaches of GDPR in the EU and UK.

Labour, which has enjoyed a bounce in support since Andy Burnham entered Downing Street, said Reform wanted to “scrap vital safeguards that protect people’s private data” and said the proposals were “unworkable and unserious”.

Meanwhile, Reform would expand the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which allows income tax rebates of as much as 50 per cent of investments in start-ups, to allow parents and grandparents to receive the same tax breaks for backing new small businesses.

“Reform UK believes the 6mn small businesses in the UK are the backbone of our high streets and our economy and we will back them to the hilt,” Jenrick said.

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A person familiar with Reform’s plan on civil liabilities said it would not exempt non-executive directors from criminal liability, including if the company was found hiring irregular immigrants.

On Tuesday, Farage — who is under investigation by parliament’s standards commissioner over an undeclared £5mn gift he received in 2024 from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne — said Reform was “unchaining British enterprise and backing the workers who actually create wealth”.

At its annual conference in Birmingham next week, Reform will host an inaugural “business day” as the party attempts to build ties with chief executives, who have at times in the past been wary of its anti-immigration rhetoric.