Nigel Farage pledged on Sunday to scrap income tax on overtime, saying people who earn less than £75,000 and worked a 40-hour week would not pay tax on extra hours worked. The proposal was splashed across the papers and quickly cast as a direct challenge to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
The Sunday Telegraph said the plan was aimed at “people who put in the extra hours” and that it would give workers a response to having “no real reward at the end of the month.” It estimated the policy would cost £5bn a year, while the Sunday Express called it “the clearest sign yet” of Farage’s pitch to working voters. The timing matters because the pledge lands as Reform UK tries to turn a single tax promise into a broader test of whether it can speak to people who feel squeezed by work and wages.
That argument is complicated by another set of Sunday front pages. The Sunday Mirror said Reform UK has received millions in donations from people or companies with offshore links, and identified Harborne, who is based in Thailand, as the party’s biggest donor. Farage has previously said Christopher Harborne’s £5m donation, revealed last month, was a reward for campaigning for Brexit and given on a completely unconditional basis.
The Mail on Sunday added a further layer of intrigue, reporting that Farage claimed Russian spies hacked his phone to obtain details about the donation. The paper said sources suggested he became “intensely suspicious” that he had been hacked by “foreign state actors” after Harborne’s donation became public. The episode gives the Reform leader a way to cast himself as the target of hostile attention, but it also keeps the spotlight on the source and scale of the money flowing into his party.
Elsewhere in the Sunday papers, the focus moved from politics to royal scrutiny. The Sunday Times reported that police are investigating an allegation that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot in 2002, and said detectives are understood to be pursuing the matter as part of a broader investigation into potential misconduct in public office. The paper said he has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing. Separately, the former royal was a UK trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, a role that has long added to the public interest in any official conduct inquiry.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer also entered the sports row, writing to broadcaster TNT Sports and asking it to drop its fees for the Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint Germain so fans could watch the match for free. The Daily Star said stadiums will get quiet rooms for supporters who do not like cheering, a small but telling reminder that even football coverage now carries its own effort to serve every kind of crowd. Together, the day’s headlines pointed to a familiar Sunday pattern: Farage trying to turn a tax promise into momentum, while questions over money, scrutiny and public trust keep following him into the next week.
