Key facts
- Reform UK's Robert Jenrick proposed scrapping GDPR for small businesses.
- The party plans to replace GDPR with a "light-touch" law based on New Zealand's privacy model.
- Proposed reforms include reversing a national insurance hike for employers and raising the VAT threshold to £150,000.
- The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) would be expanded to allow family investments.
- Reform UK also pledged to scrap income tax on overtime and repeal the Employment Rights Act.
Reform UK's economics chief, Robert Jenrick, has presented a package of proposed reforms for small businesses, which he described as the "biggest plan" in a decade. The proposals, unveiled a week before the party's conference, aim to appeal to employers with fewer than 50 employees.
Key among the proposals is the scrapping of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to be replaced by a "light-touch" law intended to boost innovation and ease regulatory burdens. The party cited research suggesting that GDPR has negatively impacted venture capital investment in tech firms and led to a significant reduction in app availability on platforms like the Google Play Store. Officials argued that GDPR and other regulations, such as those related to net zero and workers' rights, disproportionately affect small businesses.
Jenrick proposed a new data privacy model inspired by New Zealand's laws, featuring smaller fines and broader definitions of anonymity. He stated that these and other previously announced Reform UK policies could prevent six million firms from failing.
Additional pledges include partially reversing the former Chancellor Rachel Reeves' increase in the employer's national insurance rate and raising the VAT threshold from £90,000 to £150,000. The party also plans to ease pay and investment rules, expand the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) to allow family investments, scrap income tax on overtime, and repeal the Employment Rights Act.
A Labour Party spokesperson criticized the plans, linking them to a desire to weaken online safety measures and protect private data, and suggested they were a distraction from other party matters.