Reform UK’s economics chief Robert Jenrick has described a package of tax and red tape reforms for small businesses as the party’s “biggest plan” in a decade.

A week before Reform’s conference in Birmingham, Jenrick set out a series of flagship policies aimed at businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

The party said it would scrap GDPR, the EU-based rules governing how companies use personal data, and replace them with a “light-touch” law that it says would support innovation and reduce regulatory burdens for entrepreneurs.

Reform cited research from a Washington DC-based think tank claiming that EU laws introduced in 2018 cut venture capital investment in tech firms by more than 20 per cent.

The party also pointed to another paper suggesting that GDPR led to a third of available apps on the Google Play Store being removed, while the number of new apps entering stores fell by half between 2026 and 2019.

Officials said small businesses were disproportionately affected by GDPR because legal obligations related to contact-building and emails outside organisations could make it harder for firms to operate. They described GDPR and other rules linked to net zero and workers’ rights as “silly rules”.

One Adam Smith Institute report suggested that GDPR reduced the size of the UK economy by around 0.4 per cent and hit small firms’ sales and profits more than those of larger companies.

Jenrick calls for focus on small businesses

Jenrick said Reform instead favours a model based on privacy laws in New Zealand, which feature smaller fines and broader definitions around anonymity in data collection.

He said a series of other policies already announced by Reform and aimed at helping small businesses would stop six million firms from “fall[ing] by the wayside”.

Those pledges include a plan to partly reverse former Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to raise the national insurance rate paid by employers from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent when firms hire British workers, alongside a proposal to lift the VAT threshold from £90,000 to £150,000.

“Under a Reform government, the UK will be the best place in the world to start and grow a small business,” Jenrick said.

The party also confirmed it would ease pay and investment rules imposed on companies.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), which offers tax relief to private investors in early-stage start-up companies, would be expanded to allow relatives to invest in small businesses.

Reform has also pledged to scrap income tax on overtime, a policy that has drawn criticism from some economists, and to repeal the Employment Rights Act.

The package lands as small businesses continue to face a mix of data, labour and tax compliance obligations that have become a recurring fault line in the debate over regulation, especially for firms with limited legal and administrative resources.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “First Reform want to rip up the Online Safety Act which keeps kids safe online. Now they plan to scrap vital safeguards that protect people’s private data.

“These unworkable and unserious plans are just a desperate attempt to distract from Nigel Farage’s secret £5m ‘gift’ from a Thai-based crypto billionaire.”