Farage deploys Jenrick to calm Britain’s bankers

Politico Europe · Feb 18, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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News Politics Reform UK’s new Treasury spokesperson insists key institutions are in safe hands under his boss Farage. It’s an effort to reassure investors and businesses that Reform can be trusted with the British economy. | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images February 18, 2026 10:30 am CET LONDON — A Reform UK government would keep the Office for Budget Responsibility and maintain the independence of the Bank of England, Robert Jenrick, the party’s new “shadow chancellor,” will say at an event in the City of London Wednesday. Jenrick was only appointed to the role – which makes him the Treasury spokesperson for the right-wing populist party leading in British polls — Tuesday. Already, he’s being sent out to tell figures and journalists in London’s financial powerhouse that Reform would back the two totemic economic institutions. It’s an effort to reassure investors and businesses that Reform can be trusted with the British economy. It was only last month that his party leader, Nigel Farage, told the World Economic Forum in Davos he doesn’t like banks, would scrap interest payments lenders receive through the BoE’s quantitative easing program, and refused to rule out appointing his own governor to the central bank. Earlier this year Farage stated that he was giving “serious thought” to scrapping the OBR, which provides independent analysis of government spending plans. In November, Farage and his deputy Richard Tice U-turned on a plan to dish out £90 billion in tax cuts, which was initially pledged in the party’s 2024 election manifesto. Jenrick will vow Wednesday that Reform UK will be focused on “restoring stability” and “eliminating wasteful spending.” Although Jenrick will claim that the BoE would keep its independence under a Farage government, he will add that the Bank would be stripped of “ancillary responsibilities,” such as considering the impact of climate change, and will follow his leader in having a crack at the institution for “excessive quantitative easing” and “taking its eye off the ball on inflation.” He’ll say the Bank’s rate-setting committee must have private sector representation, and say the OBR will have to open itself up to more “outside, proven forecasting expertise,” too. “The OBR is far from perfect,” he will say. “But the impetus for its creation was a desire to instill fiscal discipline, and that is something we wholeheartedly endorse. Rather than abolish it, we will reform it. We will break up this cosy consensus and ensure it has diversity of opinion,” Jenrick will say today. “We will demand that the Bank is a more open institution, and the private sector better represented on the Monetary Policy Committee.” In previous statements, Farage has also been a critic of City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority, hinting that he wants to strip the FCA of its power to regulate the banking industry, and slamming its approach to crypto regulation. However, there was no mention of the FCA in Reform’s preview of Jenrick’s speech released by the party. Britain’s possible future chancellor is only a fledgling Reform MP, after planning to defect from the Conservative Party in mid-January — and then being kicked out after Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch discovered he was a flight risk. Farage announced Jenrick, a former Conservative housing secretary, and exchequer secretary to the Treasury in Theresa May’s government, would get the top Treasury job in a would-be Reform government at an unveiling event Tuesday. The title, “shadow chancellor,” is one normal used by the official opposition in the U.K., so the badging is being seen as a power play by Farage’s team as it tries to replace the Tories. Jenrick said Tuesday that he intends to “get out to talk to businesses in the City and, frankly, right across the country,” so that Reform and the sector can have a “productive relationship.”