Farage’s Reform UK Calls for Abolition of GDPR in Post-Brexit Britain

Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party have called for the complete abolition of the United Kingdom’s data protection framework inherited from the European Union, arguing that the General Data Protection Regulation has acted as a brake on economic growth and technological innovation since Brexit.

Reform UK’s position, reported by political media outlets, frames GDPR as a piece of burdensome European legislation that has outlived its usefulness in a post-Brexit Britain. The party contends that the regulation has “strangled small businesses and tech firms,” according to reports, and that scrapping it would unleash entrepreneurial activity across the country.

The UK formally retained GDPR in its domestic legal framework after leaving the European Union, incorporating the rules into what became known as the UK GDPR, administered alongside the Data Protection Act 2018. The Information Commissioner’s Office continues to enforce these standards, which govern how organisations collect, store, and process personal data belonging to individuals.

A Tension Between Deregulation and Data Adequacy

Any move to dismantle the UK’s data protection regime would, however, carry significant consequences for trade and cross-border data flows with the European Union. The UK currently holds an adequacy decision from the European Commission, meaning that personal data can flow freely between the EU and Britain without additional safeguards. This status depends on the UK maintaining data protection standards deemed essentially equivalent to those of the EU. Were Reform UK’s proposal ever to become government policy, that adequacy decision would almost certainly come under review, potentially disrupting data transfers relied upon by thousands of businesses operating across both markets.

Critics of the proposal have been quick to point out this contradiction. Scrapping GDPR in the name of business freedom could, paradoxically, impose new compliance costs on UK companies that export goods and services to European customers, who would still be subject to EU data rules. Legal and technology sector voices have long warned that regulatory divergence from Brussels carries hidden costs that often outweigh the perceived gains from deregulation.

The debate also touches on broader questions of digital rights and consumer protections. GDPR introduced a suite of individual rights — including the right to access personal data, the right to erasure, and restrictions on automated decision-making — that have become embedded in how citizens across Europe interact with digital services. Removing these protections in the UK would mark a significant departure from the standards that have shaped global data governance norms since the regulation came into force in 2018.

Reform UK’s position is unlikely to become law in the near term, given the party’s current standing in Westminster. Nevertheless, the proposal reflects a growing strand of post-Brexit thinking on the political right that views inherited EU regulations as targets for reform, and it signals the direction in which a future Reform-influenced government might move on technology and data policy. With a general election cycle already reshaping British politics, the party appears intent on staking out bold deregulatory ground to distinguish itself from both the Conservatives and Labour.