1 hour ago
7
Nigel Farage has faced cross-party condemnation after threatening hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants with deportation by pledging to abolish the main route towards permanent settlement in the UK.
The Reform UK leader was roundly criticised over the principle and practicality of his proposals, with Labour figures accusing him of seeking to “break up families” and “foster division”.
At a tetchy press conference on Monday, Farage claimed the policy was aimed at stopping 800,000 people from becoming eligible for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) between 2026 and 2030.
Farage said this group – which he called the “Boriswave” because they arrived under post-Brexit changes made by Boris Johnson – tended to be young and low-skilled and were “going to be a huge burden on the state” by claiming benefits.
Speaking alongside his policy chief, Zia Yusuf, Farage pledged to abolish ILR and force people to reapply for visas every five years, with stringent salary and English language requirements and tougher rules around bringing dependants.
He left open the possibility that families in the UK could be broken up and that Ukrainians and Hongkongers who moved here using special resettlement routes could have their rights to remain revoked.
In response, Downing Street said the UK was at a crossroads between “national renewal” under Keir Starmer and “the path of division and decline which Reform wants to put the country on”.
Starmer is preparing to make a major speech pledging to take the fight to Farage and proposing that the UK will reject division and hate fuelled by the far right.
His intervention will come before the Labour conference this weekend, as pressure mounts on Starmer from senior party figures who argue that he should take a more impassioned stance against Reform and rising racism in Britain.
Much of Labour’s criticism of Farage’s proposals, including the ones on Monday, has been centred on their workability rather than moral objection.
Reform’s central claim that the move would save £230bn was called into question when it emerged that it had been sourced from a Centre for Policy Studies report whose authors said the figure “should not be used” because it was based on erroneous data.
Asked by reporters whether he would withdraw the £230bn figure in light of this, Farage said it was “without a doubt too low” and “underestimates things”.
He did not provide a source for his claim that most migrants relied on benefits, saying he was “firmly of the belief with research backing it up” that more than 50% of the people due to become eligible for ILR in the next few years “are not working, have not worked and in all probability will never, ever work”.
Reform clarified that its policy of abolishing ILR would not apply to EU immigrants with settled status, raising further questions about the policy’s promised savings. Government sources said 770,000 universal credit claimants who are EU citizens would be exempt from the change.
Estimates from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford put the total population of non-EU citizens with ILR at 430,000 at the end of 2024.
Pressed on the impact of his announcement on sectors that rely on foreign labour, including the NHS and social care, Farage said he would open a strictly capped visa route for jobs where there was a skills shortage, while requiring employers to train local staff.
Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Threatening to sack thousands of migrant nursing staff is abhorrent beyond words. These are people who have come to the UK to care for patients and become part of our communities. They deserve so much better than this.
“The policy of retrospectively removing people’s rights in this way would be unprecedented, leaving migrant nursing staff unable to work or access welfare, despite having paid tax. It shows neither compassion nor an understanding of the fundamental role our brilliant migrant nursing staff play in health and care. Without them, services would simply cease to function.”
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said the plans “have no basis in reality”, while Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said they were “falling apart in real time” and that Farage was “unable to say how many families his policy would break up”.
Turley said: “Reform have been forced to admit that their policy does not apply to people from the EU – destroying Farage’s claims that it covers all foreign-born nationals. Farage is unable to say how many families his policy would break up, what the cost to businesses would be, what would happen to pensioners and how long it would take to implement.”
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said: “Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.” The Scottish National party’s deputy Westminster leader, Pete Wishart, said the proposals were “desperate and despicable”.
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the move could lead to another Windrush scandal. “Nigel Farage has not clearly thought this through. He has not worked out the impact on red tape or on taxes. He has not realised that lots of these people have made their lives here, contributing to businesses, to the health service,” he told GB News.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the policy was “half-baked and unworkable” and that Reform “lift our policies but strip away the detail that makes them enforceable”.
Sunder Katwala, the director of the thinktank British Future, said: “Threatening to revoke the settled status of millions who already have indefinite leave is morally wrong, beyond the legal and practical chaos it would cause – it undermines the very idea of belonging in this country.
“Debating future settlement rules for new arrivals is a legitimate public policy debate. Most of the public agree it is fair that people living here can apply to settle permanently after five years. The uncertainty this proposal creates for people who have already built their lives here – Hongkongers, EU citizens who came before Brexit and others – is unfair and must be resolved with urgency.”
