Nigel Farage today vowed to block foreign nationals from receiving benefits and force hundreds of thousands of migrants with ‘settled status’ out of the UK.
The Reform leader condemned legal permanent settlement for foreign nationals as a ‘scam’, warning it is a ‘timebomb’ that could bankrupt the country.
Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) allows those who have lived here for more than five years to receive benefits and apply for citizenship.
Reform estimates 3.8million migrants who arrived after the pandemic will be eligible for ILR between 2026 and 2030.
Mr Farage suggested ending the status will save £234billion that would be paid out in benefits for them and their dependants in the coming decades.
Instead, individuals will have to reapply regularly for visas proving they are paying their own way and have good English.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster this morning, Mr Farage said people needed to focus on legal migration as well as illegal migration – such as Channel boat arrivals.
‘Under a Reform government welfare will be for UK citizens only. Not foreign nationals,’ he said.
But Mr Farage admitted the rule would not apply to around six million EU nationals living in the UK with settled status after Brexit.
And he dodged questions on what would happen to up to 430,000 non-EU nationals thought to have settled status currently.
Critics have questioned the implications for the NHS of deporting migrants on lower salaries, who often work in the health sector. Reform has not decided what the minimum salary would be for visas.
It is unclear what would happen to those with settled status who have British children, or to pensioners who no longer work.
The Centre for Policy Studies think-tank – which originally made the £234billion estimate for benefits costs from ILR – has since withdrawn it.
Mr Farage openly conceded the task of sifting through millions of re-applications would be huge.
‘We’re not for a minute pretending that going back through the backlog would be an easy thing to do,’ he said.
Under Mr Farage’s plan, no new ILR awards would be made and migrants already allowed to live here under ILR – so-called settled status – would have it rescinded.
Mr Farage proposes that migrants living here would instead have to apply for a five-year renewable visa with stricter criteria, such as proving they can speak English and can earn a high salary, and would face restrictions on how many dependants could join them.
Those rejected would lose state benefits and be expected to leave voluntarily or face removal under the party’s tough plan for tackling illegal migration, known as Operation Restoring Justice.
Reform’s policy document states that the changes ‘will be done on a staggered and orderly basis to allow businesses to train British workers to replace them’. Reform said it is giving notice that ‘the era of cheap foreign labour is over’.
The qualifying period for citizenship – which is currently one year after being granted ‘settled status’ – would also be extended to seven years to prevent it being given ‘cheaply’.
Mr Farage said: ‘The Tories and Labour have turned the UK into a foodbank for the world.’
He told the press conference: ‘Far too many that have come don’t work, have never worked and never will work.
‘The ability to bring dependents of all kinds, and when you realise that most that come are very low skilled, and on very low wages, you start to get a very very different picture. In fact, you start to get a massive benefits bill.’
Pointing to the surge in legal immigration after Brexit, Mr Farage said: ‘This is not what Brexit voters wanted, and it’s certainly not what any Conservative voter wanted from 2010 onwards.
‘Where at an election, after an election, after an election, they were promised that net migration would come down to tens of thousands a year, and we learn it was up to – in the worst year – a million.’
Reform’s policy chief Zia Yusuf said there would be a specific ‘skill shortage’ class of visa, but it would be subject to an annual cap. Employers would also have to pay a levy on workers that would go towards training Brits to do the job in future.
Mr Yusuf acknowledged that nearly six million EU nationals with settled status in the UK would not be subject Reform’s plan or restrictions on benefits.
The party would instead try to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement terms on claiming benefits.
Mr Farage also confirmed that there would be no move to review and withdraw UK citizenship decisions.
‘If you’ve been granted UK citizenship you have been granted UK citizenship, to be absolutely clear, there should be no confusion over that,’ he said.
‘We would not retrospectively change that, because you become a legal citizen of this country. We would never, ever suggest otherwise.’
Mr Farage said workers could expect a pay rise if it went ahead under a Reform government, because it would reduce the supply of workers.
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The party’s head of policy, Zia Yusuf, said: ‘If we’re serious about saying we’re going to cut net immigration to zero, we’re going to embark on deporting people who are here illegally, we are going to stop the abuse of our welfare system, yes there will be some businesses who do have to pay more for that labour.’
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Dr Ben Brindle of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said: ‘Under Reform’s proposals, migrants living in the UK would either be on temporary visas, such as work visas, or would be British citizens.
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