REFORM UK have pledged to ban most foreign nationals from claiming most types of welfare.
The ban would cover European Union nationals with settled status in the UK, something that would require Nigel Farage’s party to renegotiate the Brexit deal with Brussels and potentially lead to British citizens living in the EU losing equivalent rights.
The party claims that the plans would save around £21 billion annually by its fifth year of being implemented. It believes the cost of British overseas citizens returning to the UK to receive the benefits they lost overseas would be around £500m. It is unclear how these figures were calculated.
The party had previously pledged to ban foreign nationals from claiming Universal Credit but the new proposals covers almost all welfare payments including housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker’s allowance, child benefit, free childcare and disability benefits.
Tory defector Robert Jenrick, now working as Reform's finance spokesman, said: “Forcing British workers to pay for the benefits of foreigners is not just economically illiterate but plain immoral.
“People are more than happy to support their neighbours in hard times, but the British taxpayer cannot afford to subsidise everyone on the planet, especially those who have not paid in.
“The public have been crying out for this change for decades.
“Unlike the two old parties, Reform will deliver a system that’s fair for the British people.”
Mothin Ali, the Green Party's deputy leader, issued a scathing statement against the plans, saying several political parties in the UK are trying to "outdo each other when it comes to who can be the most xenophobic, who can punch down the hardest to the most vulnerable in our country, and who can cut the most support from disabled people".
"It is cowardly to take from the most defenceless when we should be taxing the super wealthy including those who are in the privileged position of accepting £5m donations," he added.
A Labour spokesman also attacked the plans, saying: “These plans would mean ripping up the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, plunging the UK back into years of Brexit renegotiations and stripping support from potentially millions of people who have lawfully lived, worked and paid taxes in Britain for years, and in many cases decades.
“That includes people with settled status who are part of our communities, raising families, working and contributing to our economy.”
The spokesman said the “vast majority” of migrants had no access to benefits and the Labour Government was already reforming the welfare system.
Pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain also hit out at the plans, citing polling it conducted that found renegotiation with the EU to expand collaboration is popular among voters.
Tom Brufatto, Best For Britain's executive director, said: "It’s clear after the party’s lacklustre showing in the Clacton by-election," where 26.71% of the vote went to Count Binface after all the other major parties boycotted the contest, "Reform UK is increasingly out of touch with what Brits really want."
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