Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage gestures as he speaks during the Reform party’s annual conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. via Associated Press
Nigel Farage’s latest plan to clamp down on immigration is already “falling apart” just hours after being unveiled.
The Reform UK leader has promised to end the so-called “indefinite leave to remain” status for migrants if he wins the next election.
Known as ILR, it allows anyone who has lived in the UK for more than five years to receive benefits and apply for citizenship.
Under the Reform plans, new applicants would have to meet certain criteria, including a higher salary threshold and better standard of English.
They would have to have lived in the UK for seven years, up from five, and there would be tighter restrictions on bringing spouses and children to the UK.
The new visa would also prevent any access to benefits.
Farage claimed this would reverse the surge in immigration recorded after Brexit – visa rules were relaxed so foreign nationals could apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years in the UK – when 3.8 million people moved to the UK.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Reform’s Zia Yusuf said these changes would save £234billion which would otherwise be claimed in benefits.
That figure comes from a Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) report.
But in a statement issued on Monday, the CPS said it had been based on incorrect data from the Office for Budget Responsibility and “should no longer be used”.
Reform’s proposed changes would also not necessarily prevent foreign migrants from accessing benefits, considering most of the foreign claimants of Universal Credit are in the EU Settlement Scheme.
Their access to benefits were woven into the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, and would not be impacted by Reform’s proposed changes – suggesting the crackdown would not be nearly as effective as Farage has promised.
It also remains unclear just how Reform would be able to remove ILR from people who already have the granted status and are looking to apply to citizenship.
While Reform’s head of DOGE (department of government efficiency) Zia Yusuf insisted these changes would encourage anyone without ILR to “leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits”, he failed to explain just how many people that would include.
There would also likely be a knock-on effect for industries such as social care and hospitality who might face a labour shortage as a result.
A Labour source told HuffPost UK: “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’.”
Related…