Nigel Farage announced plans to crackdown on the rights of migrants alongside tighter rules on claiming benefits – but critics have said the proposals have already ‘fallen apart’
Nigel Farage has announced plans to crackdown on the rights of migrants alongside tighter rules on claiming benefits.
The Reform UK leader announced his proposal to abolish indefinite leave to remain if his party – which currently boasts 5 MPs – wins power.
He said that hundreds of thousands of migrants who came to the UK under more relaxed post-Brexit rules introduced by Boris Johnson’s Tory government – as part of what Reform is branding the “Boriswave” – will in January begin to qualify for permanent residence.
The party estimates between 2026 and 2030 around 800,000 new migrants will get indefinite leave to remain. But critics said the plan had already “fallen apart” and has “no basis in reality” – just hours after it was announced.
What is indefinite leave to remain?
Indefinite leave to remain is one of the main routes to citizenship. In order to qualify, migrants must have lived and worked in the UK for five years.
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It gives migrants the right to work, live and study in the UK for as long they like, and the ability to later apply for a passport. It also gives people access to certain benefits, if they qualify.
What is Reform proposing?
Reform UK is planning to axe the status entirely, and instead forcing people to apply for new renewable visas lasting five years. There will be a higher qualifying salary for the visas, stricter English language requirements, while those eligible will be banned for claiming benefits.
Mr Farage confirmed there would be no retrospective change to UK citizenship status. He said: “If you’ve been granted UK citizenship you have been granted UK citizenship, to be absolutely clear, there should be no confusion over that.
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“We would not retrospectively change that, because you become a legal citizen of this country. We would never, ever suggest otherwise.”
Saving of ‘over £230billion’ in doubt
Nigel Farage has boasted the plan to abolish indefinite leave to remain and migrants’ entitlement to benefits will save UK taxpayers over £230billion.
The Reform UK chief said: “Our changes will save British taxpayers at least £234billion over the lifetime of these migrants. That is four times our total defence budget, or double what is spent on education.”
But the figure is based on a report from the Centre of Policy Studies – published in February – and has been effectively disowned by the think-tank. The CPS has a warning on its website saying the figure should “no longer be used” due to a dispute over the number.
A Labour source responded: “Farage’s not even half-baked announcement has already fallen apart. Yet again, Reform have no credible plan and their only answer is ‘don’t know’.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figures had shown plans “have no basis in reality”.
Despite doubts over the figure, Mr Farage stood by the savings during Monday’s press conference, without providing evidence.
Huge ‘carve out’ on benefits plan
The Reform UK leader claimed in an article welfare will only be available for UK citizens. “No foreign nationals will be entitled to any benefits,” he added.
But during Monday’s press conference the party’s head of policy, Zia Yusuf, suggested EU nationals with settled status in the UK would not be subjected to the policy. He said: “The answer is no in terms of EU-settled status. But there is a caveat.
“There is a lot of EU nationals in this country who are drawing on Universal Credit, so you can expect Nigel’s government to open negotiations with the European Union specifically about the welfare aspect, but as Nigel has said time and again, the big issue we’re talking about here is the non-EU numbers.”
Government sources said 770,000 out of the 1.3million claims from foreign nations for Universal Credit have EU settled status. They added: “That’s a massive carve out from his plan to stop all foreigners getting benefits.”
Unanswered questions
Reform UK’s policy chief said the salary threshold for the mooted new visas will be “materially different”. But he was unable to give further details, instead saying what the salary cap could be will come closer to the next general election.
Questions also remain for public services such as the NHS and the care sector which rely heavily on migrant workers. Mr Yusuf told a press conference care workers would fall under an ‘acute, skills shortage visa’.
He said: “But we want to emphasise, it will be a finite number, it will be capped, it will not be open to abuse. And to the degree in which employers benefit from that visa, they will have to fund a programme to train British workers.” Details on the cap and the cost to employers were not set out.
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