What would dentistry look like under a Reform UK government?

With Keir Starmer resigning as prime minister and Andy Burnham expected to take over, NHS dentistry is entering another period of political uncertainty.

Labour came to power promising to rebuild NHS dentistry, increase appointments, fill dental deserts and reform the dental contract. But almost two years into government, the profession is still waiting for the full contract reform process to begin.

That delay has created political space for Reform UK, which has continued to rise in the polls while attacking Labour’s record on public services, migration and the cost of employment.

But what would dentistry look like under a government led by Nigel Farage?

Dentistry does not feature directly in Reform UK’s manifesto, and requests for detail from Dentistry.co.uk to the party have gone without reply. However, the party’s wider policies on immigration, employment, tax and the National Health Service (NHS) could have significant implications for dental practices.

What could Reform’s migrant labour levy mean for dentistry?

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, said in June that the party would scrap Labour’s rise in employer National Insurance contributions for British workers only.

He also proposed a ‘migrant labour levy’ on firms employing overseas workers, with full details to be set out nearer the next general election.

Jenrick suggested a charge of around £3,750 for a full-time worker on the national living wage. He said the policy could raise billions of pounds to fund employment tax cuts for British workers.

For dentistry, the proposal would raise questions about recruitment costs, staffing pressures and access to care. General Dental Council (GDC) figures published in May showed that more than half (53%) of dentists who joined the register in 2025 were internationally qualified.

The Association of Dental Groups (ADG) has previously described allowing more overseas professionals to practise in the UK as the ‘low hanging fruit’ solution to the workforce crisis.

Reform UK has also pledged to scrap indefinite leave to remain and replace it with a five-year renewable visa with higher salary thresholds, mandatory English fluency and stricter character requirements.

The current skilled worker visa threshold sits at £41,700, a level that already effectively excludes most dental nurses. Raising it further could affect dental therapists, hygienists and technicians currently on skilled worker visas.

What has Reform UK said about NHS dentistry?

Reform has not set out any specific commitments on dental access or NHS contract reform, however it has vowed to:

Farage has previously addressed the access crisis in public statements, acknowledging that ‘people are pulling out their own teeth’. Responding to the widely reported queues outside a Bristol dental practice in 2024, he attributed pressure on services partly to migration-driven population growth.

Labour leadership change raises dental questions

Starmer’s resignation has raised fresh questions over whether NHS dentistry will remain a political priority under his successor.

Following his recent win in the Makerfield by-election, Burnham confirmed that he would stand to replace Starmer as Labour Party leader. If no other candidate comes forward, Burnham could become prime minister by 17 July.

As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham’s priorities for dentistry included tackling childhood oral health inequalities and supporting healthcare devolution to build local preventive dental programmes. However, he has yet to specify how he would approach dentistry at parliamentary level.

The profession will now be looking for clarity on whether he would keep Labour’s existing dentistry commitments, retain the current ministerial team and accelerate dental contract reform.

Speaking to Dentistry.co.uk in May at Dentistry Show Birmingham, British Dental Association (BDA) chair Eddie Crouch expressed concern about the amount of time Labour had left to reform NHS dentistry.

He said: ‘Unless we get that consultation and make progress on this, their ambition to reform the contract during this parliamentary term is going to be under pressure.’

However, he also suggested there was support for dentistry in the wider government, saying: ‘What I hope is that a minister that I’ve built up a relationship with over the last two years, who I believe has got the right motives, will continue in post, irrespective of who eventually ends up leading the Labour Party.’

Political pressure to act

A public consultation on dental contract reform had been expected in spring but slipped to summer.

Crouch said there was a direct electoral incentive for Labour to act.

‘There’s a huge percentage of Labour MPs who get mailbags full of dental problems, who get told on the doorstep that dentistry is important to them. If they don’t fix NHS dentistry by the end of this term, I think they’ve got no chance at the ballot box. And the investment needed is not an awful lot in the grand scheme of things, dentistry is about 3% of the NHS budget.’

The next UK general election must be held by 15 August 2029, unless one is called earlier.

Reform UK won five seats, had 609 candidates and received 14.3% of the vote in the 2024 general election. But Farage has called for a general election ‘at the soonest possible date’ following Starmer’s resignation, arguing that the country ‘cannot afford to waste another week drifting from crisis to crisis’.

For Crouch, the more important point is that the political will to fix NHS dentistry transcends any single party.

‘I believe that there is a parliamentary will to actually improve dentistry, and that’s across all parties, whether I meet the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives or Labour. Everyone wants NHS dentistry to be resolved. With that political will, we have reason to be optimistic,’ he said.

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