Nigel Farage has announced plans to cut migration and slash the welfare bill by £230 billion if he becomes Prime Minister.
There’s some debate about the precise sum of money, but Reform UK insists there are big savings to be made by making it much harder – or impossible – for foreigners living in the UK to claim benefits.
Here’s what we know:
What is the change to benefits?
One massive change is a proposed change in the law to ensure only British citizens are eligible for welfare, with no exceptions. Reform says its plans mean “every loophole closed to prevent abuse”.
On top of that, a Reform UK government would abolish “indefinite leave to remain” status. This is a status foreign people (ie, people who are not British citizens) can apply for in many cases if they have been in the country for five years. It means they are allowed to live here and to work here permanently, and claim benefits, without the need to apply for more visas in the future.
Will they make changes to visas?
Reform would scrap indefinite leave to remain, and replace it with a visa that people have to apply for every five years. The new visa would not entitle people to claim benefits.
Perhaps the most controversial element of Reform’s plan is the pledge to remove “indefinite leave to remain” status from people who already have it. They would also need to start applying for a new visa every five years. Mr Farage stressed that this would not apply to immigrants who are British citizens, as citizenship would always be permanent. Indefinite leave to remain is not the same as being a citizen.
And in another change, the new five-year visa would have tougher requirements. Applicants would need to earn a higher salary than they do now, they would need a higher standard of English and they could be refused a visa if they have any criminal convictions, have failed to pay taxes they owed or have claimed benefits. In addition, they might not be able to bring dependents into the UK, depending on how much they earn.
How will citizenship be affected?
A Reform government would also make it harder to become a citizen. At the moment, people can apply for citizenship if they have lived in the UK for five years and meet certain other conditions. But this would be extended to seven years.
Why does Reform say the changes are needed?
Mr Farage says huge changes are needed because the UK spends billions on welfare for foreign nationals, including £9 billion on Universal Credit. But he says he is particularly concerned about the large number of migrants who came to the UK between 2021 and the end of 2024, who will soon be eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain. This could be 800,000 people, he says. Because Boris Johnson was Prime Minister when many of these migrants arrived, he (and some other people) calls them the Boriswave.
Mr Farage said: “Welfare will end for everyone that is not a UK citizen, we will close the loopholes. Reform will ensure that welfare is for UK citizens only.
“We are cleaning up the mess of Boris Johnson and dealing with the Boriswave – the biggest betrayal of voters’ trust in modern times.”
Other parties, of course, disagree, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Reform of copying Conservative ideas and called the policy “half-baked and unworkable”.
He said: “They lift our policies but strip away the detail that makes them enforceable. Mass low-skill migration carries real fiscal costs – in housing, welfare, and public services – which is why Britain needs a system that rewards contribution and stops abuse.”
Labour Chair Anna Turley said: “Nigel Farage’s not even half-baked plan is unfunded, unworkable and falling apart in real time.
“Their policy was in pieces before their press conference even started when they relied on discredited numbers. And now 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 – basic questions that any serious political party would know the answers to before making an announcement like this.”
