Reform’s John Bell has resigned as parish councillor for Mabe in Cornwall and quit Farage’s far-right party. Explaining his decision, Bell stated that he “cannot in good conscience” support the recently announced ‘Making Welfare Work’ policy.
Joining resounding criticism of the harmful policy, Bell says that Reform’s changes to welfare and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) will “cost lives of people, especially those who have suicidal ideation”.
This resignation comes in the wake of Jason Arday’s apparent suicide – a death likely caused by the immense, undue pressure and demeaning rhetoric the mainstream media directed at him. That same media has spent years demonising and belittling people who rely on welfare support, particularly those receiving PIP.
As a result, this intervention from Bell underlines the real-world danger of punitive policy changes that risk leaving vulnerable people even more isolated.
Today I have resigned from Reform UK and also I have resigned as a Councillor. I cannot in good conscience support the Making Welfare Work policy. These changes will cost lives of people especially those who have suicidal ideation.
— John Bell
(@johngbell0) August 17, 2026
Reform to cut £50bn from support for disabled people
Reform’s latest harmful policy announcement proposes replacing PIP entirely with a new system, ironically called a ‘Health Security Allowance’, while claiming it could save the welfare system a staggering £50bn.
But the reality is rather different. Reform would effectively shift the cost of PIP onto employers, who it says would need to take out insurance to cover the additional costs. It then proposes offsetting that hit through lower national insurance payments.
As our own Willem Moore and others have pointed out, this is unlikely to go down well with either PIP recipients or business owners. And for good reason. PIP helps many disabled people meet the additional costs of living with a disability and, crucially, can help make employment possible for those affected.
Businesses also benefit from disabled people being able to participate in the workforce. Yet Reform’s proposal would saddle employers with additional costs at the same time as many businesses already complain they are being squeezed by government.
If that £50bn bill really is being shifted onto businesses, you might expect a revolt. Especially when so many businesses and wealthy donors have backed Reform. On the face of it, the policy risks alienating both voters and the very business interests the party claims to champion.
DWP PIP claimants are being tricked into voting Reform
Some PIP claimants believed that Reform was only going after 'fraudsters'; now the party has made it clear they're going for everyonehttps://t.co/xAc61sMw7Shttps://t.co/xAc61sMw7S
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) August 17, 2026
But there is a much darker possibility
If employers face far higher costs when hiring disabled workers, what happens when they start factoring those costs into recruitment decisions? The risk is that disabled applicants become even less attractive to employers, whether openly or through discriminatory hiring practices.
That creates a perfect storm: disabled people could lose vital financial support while simultaneously finding it harder to get and keep work.
And that is why the potential consequences of this policy go far beyond a row over welfare spending. Strip away the rhetoric about ‘saving’ £50bn and the long-term impact could be devastating. A policy that removes income, restricts access to work and pushes already vulnerable people further into isolation could, in the worst cases, cost lives.
As the now-former Reform councillor above points out, those already experiencing suicidal thoughts could be among those most at risk. For those with any degree of moral conscience or decency would do as Bell has done and walk away from the party. For those who don’t, well that speaks volumes.
Grossly, one Reform supporter refutes Bell’s assertion that this policy would increase the risk of suicide. Instead, they argue that this saving would mean those who are suicidal would receive greater support from the state.
Although, it is worth pointing out that he clearly hasn’t thought this through as that number would surely only increase due to this harmful policy pushing people out of employment whilst taking away vital support:
Suicidal ideation is something a vast number of people suffer from at some point in their lives. Reform UK's plan to cut benefits for people who abuse the welfare system would actually free up more funds for those who briefly suffer from suicidal tendencies.
John Bell has not… https://t.co/SWdlESuLyE
— Joe
Reform UK (@Verbal_Vortex) August 18, 2026
Cut costs to increase costs elsewhere?
Reform voters don’t tend to apply much logic to why they support the ultra-wealthy Farage and his billionaire funded party/business, so it should hardly be a surprise that Reform would introduce a policy which would hurt its own voter base.
As our own Willem Moore reported:
It’s important to understand that some of the people with a negative opinion about benefit claimants are benefit claimants themselves. These people have bought into the lie that there are a handful of deserving claimants (themselves and their friends) and millions of undeserving. This phenomenon is why UK political parties can bash benefit claimants while still winning votes from them.
It really does seem that some Reform supporters desperately want to believe they’re somehow ‘different’ from other benefit claimants. Perhaps attacking the ‘others’ receiving state support gives them a way to distance themselves from people they see as beneath them – even when they’re relying on the very same system.
But if a future Reform government actually implements this policy, the consequences could hit the public finances from both sides.
After all, push disabled people out of work and you shrink the income tax base. At the same time, removing the support that helps people manage independently risks pushing more people towards the NHS and other public services.
That means higher costs for the state, less tax coming in and even more pressure on an NHS already struggling under the weight of privatisation.
The rich, of course, will get richer under Reform
And here’s the real kicker: instead of helping disabled people live independently and contribute to their communities, that money could end up lining the pockets of private providers and shareholders as our NHS is carved up and sold off.
This, we suspect, is exactly what Farage and his super rich backers are counting on. The question for taxpayers, is whether they want to get value for money or whether they want that to be vacuumed up by the richest in society.
Or, as Bell has pointed out, it could lead to a significant number of PIP recipients choosing to take their own lives, due to the duress this policy would inflict.
This is a Dickensian reality which no decent person should accept, let alone vote for.
Featured image via the Canary
