WAR on working people was declared by Reform UK today as the hard-right party unveiled the top team which will run the country if it wins the next election.

Tory renegade Robert Jenrick will be chancellor, party boss Nigel Farage revealed.

He also named Zia Yusuf as his pick for home secretary with ex-Conservative cabinet hard-liner Suella Braverman in charge of education and equality.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak responded to Ms Braverman’s pledge to scrap the Equality Act by warning “Reform UK think discrimination should be legal. This is a blank cheque for bad employers to mistreat their staff.

“From ripping up equality protections, to backing fire-and-rehire, to opposing a ban on zero-hours contracts, Reform UK have made it clear whose side they’re on — and it’s not working people’s,” he added.

Ms Braverman also claimed that too many young people are attending university, showing she dislikes all of her new portfolio.

Mr Yusuf, not an MP presently, pledged to “stop the boats” and tackle “radical Islam” while Mr Jenrick attacked Labour’s “crazy energy policies” and welfare spending.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice is to lead on business, Mr Farage said in the final appointment announced today.  Surprisingly there is no formal role for hardliner Lee Anderson at this stage.

Mr Tice, who would also be Mr Farage’s deputy in a Reform regime, promised reindustrialisation and the setting up of a sovereign wealth fund.

Mr Farage again ruled out any pact with the Tories and poured scorn on defector Rupert Lowe’s new Restore Britain party as unlikely to get 1 per cent of the vote.

He said Mr Lowe favoured the “mass deportation of entire communities,” which was “way beyond the point of decency, of morality.” 

PM Sir Keir Starmer was meanwhile warned a mass resignation of Labour councillors in Hartlepool over a “betrayal” of funding for children in care.

Council leader Pamela Hargreaves, the Hartlepool council leader, told the Guardian that her group of 21 councillors were considering quitting the party this week.

She said they were “between despair and open revolt” over an “unfair” cash settlement that would leave them unable to balance the books.