Reform plans to strip EU citizens of benefit rights, says Farage – BBC News

26 comments

1. Nigel claims this will save us “£6 billion a year”.

   A few small problems:

   1) Ending benefits for EU settled citizens breaks the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which could prompt legal challenges and economic retaliation from the EU.

   2) Said economic retaliation could result in a trade war. Nigel says we can respond with tariffs, but who can weather a trade war better? An island of 68 million people, or the world’s largest free trade bloc with 450 million people?

   3) A trade war with the EU means the £6 billion savings would turn out to be nothing in reality.

   4) The EU would not have a reason to trust the UK again if it sees we break agreements so easily. This could therefore permanently undermine our relationship with the EU, harming our future economic prospects.

   5) Nigel fails to explain how yet another fight with the EU would help British small businesses.

   6) When Trump used tariffs, did this make life more affordable or less affordable for Americans? Less affordable. So, why does Nigel want to copy a failed policy?

2. If they are here to help the economy then should they really be getting it in the first place

3. As if Brexit damage was not enough?

   Breaking agreements with EU, from whom you import 50% of your goods sounds like a lovely idea. To put this in number, we are dependent on EU for £96 Billion worth of goods per year.

4. Why should a non-native be entitled to benefits? Why should the native population work to subsidise non-natives?

   This is a huge win for reform.

5. Aaaaand here comes the implosion

6. It doesn’t matter what he has to say, he only cares that he gets the coverage for saying it. And it’s working.

7. So. Someone born here who’s never paid into the system will be paid benefits, while someone who’s worked here doesn’t ?

   Fucking racist morons.

8. Does he realise they have voting rights? Basically the only people voting for Reform now are childless white men.

9. Already moved on from refugees to eu migrants and then it’ll be the people born here on benefits, then it’ll just be the poor and all along the way every other minority will be thrown under the bus until society is great for solely white men with money. All the while the idiots that vote for them will be in two groups one where they see the decisions are upsetting people so will be happy regardless of the fact they’re also worse off and then the even bigger idiots who fancy themselves ‘informed’ saying ‘thiS iSNt WhAt I voTeD FOr’

10. The number of EU citizens on benefits is tiny, the vast majority on benefits are UK citizens or non-EU nationals. This is just an anti-EU stunt promoted by his donors.

11. How about the EU strip him of his pension rights as a former MEP????

12. He will pretty much strip everyone from.benefits and destroy NHS.

    EU citizens at least have a backup plan and can return to their home countries when the UK reaches bottom

13. What does he suppose the response might be from the EU affecting 10’s of thousands of brits living in Europe or owning 2nd properties there? The man is complete idiot as this achieves nothing other than making the world a worse place for everybody on both sides.

14. He can literally make up any old crap, get platformed on the BBC and make Labour change their policies to placate the thick

    The man is a cancer to this country. Even a plane crash couldn’t stop him

    I’m embarrassed to be the same species as him.

15. My mum is an EU citizen and spent years working to support me as a child and as a single mum too. She got cancer, became severely disabled and could no longer work. The only reason I was able to have food on the table as a kid was because of support my mum got from the state.

    Now Reform wants to take that support away and kids in positions like the one I was in can just go hungry I guess.
    My mum spent over 20 years in the UK working tirelessly so it’s not like she didn’t contribute and pay tax. She became reliant on the state due to severe illness and nearly died but according to reform, people like her can go fuck themselves and get their benefits ripped away.

    It’s just another reminder that I need to pay and apply for British citizenship for my mum before the next election.

16. Including his wife and children?

17. And this is why him getting anyone near power is massively concerning.

    Now he has said it, watch Labour move towards it.

18. Make Britain worse..er? Again?

19. There’s always a next scapegoat. Don’t ever forget that. Every immigrant can be sent away and they will blame the disabled, the elderly, the poor. This is populism. It doesn’t offer solutions or policies. Just neverending opposition even when they are in power.

20. Ah, out of the spotlight, so play the Trump card. This halfwit will never be PM.

21. I’m sure this will go down well with the EU and will have absolutely no effect on our ability to trade with 27 of our closest neighbours. After all he was bang on when he said that about Brexit …

22. That’s just the tip of the iceberg

    – Cut foreign aid massively, making some of the global situations that created the current migrant crisis worse, equalling more migrants.

    – Cut PIP for “non-serious anxiety issues”. This sounds like someone saw a graph of PIP claim reasons, that was the highest one so they just picked it. PIP assessments are already an absolute nightmare, let’s make them worse, that’ll work.

    – Triple NHS fees for migrants. Working immigrants already pay a hefty surcharge that many don’t see a return on because they too can’t get an NHS dentist, or a GP appointment, or an operation in the next 12 months.

    None of this is aimed at solving any sort of immigration problem. It’s so clearly designed to keep the rich rich, attract only very wealthy immigrants to the UK who are already buying up our land and properties, running businesses that shaft UK workers and siphoning off all the profits out of the UK. Farage and Tice want to keep themselves rich and placate the global oligarchs they wish they were.

23. They go all in on racism. It worked for Trump, why it wouldnt work for them, right?

24. Oh look it’s the villain of the week! Fuck Farage! Fuck reform!

25. That guy is going to destroy the U.K for good.

26. First they came for the immigrants. And I did nothing because I wasn’t one

    Then they came for the EU citizens. And I did nothing because I wasn’t one

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