Work and pensions secretary announces next statutory government review into retirement age

Tony Diver, the Telegraph’s associate political editor, is among the journalists at Nigel Farage’s conference. He has shared Reform’s policy costing document. The party estimates that the total cost of halving crime would be £17.4bn over a five-year parliament, with an annual cost of £3.48bn.

Nigel Farage has been speaking at a press conference in London about what he has framed as “lawless Britain”. Here are some of the highlights of the conference, which you can watch at the top of the blog. The Reform leader did not cite specific evidence or data to back up many of his claims:

He claims successive home secretaries have based claims that crimes in England and Wales are falling on “completely false data”. He says if you look at police recorded crimes there are “significant” rises in crime, particularly those against the person.

Farage says we are facing “nothing short of societal collapse” in many parts of the country, with “people scared to go out to the shops” and to “let their kids out”.

He says criminals and law-abiding citizens respect police less than they used to.

He says low level offences – like phone snatching and shop lifting – are rife in London and not being prosecuted.

Most people don’t even bother calling the police to report a crime because they know officers are unlikely to take any action, Farage said.

Farage said that “nobody in London understands how close we are to civil disobedience” in Britain.

He said that offenders convicted of more than three serious crimes should be “on a course towards life imprisonment”.

Reform would put more knife arches in train stations and other transport hubs to clamp down on crime, Farage suggested.

He said that every shoplifting offence would be prosecuted and every mobile phone theft investigated if Reform got into government at the next election.

Farage indicated that the party would force Reform UK councils to take new prisons in their areas as part of the party’s plans to tackle crime.

Farage said the UK’s retirement age will “inevitably” have to rise as life expectancy increases.