THE Tories have been accused of “following Reform to the extremes” as they unveiled plans to evict foreign nationals from council homes.
The Conservatives have pledged to boot hundreds of thousands of foreigners out of social housing if they regain power.
This would free up a mere 5% of the English council housing stock, based on a total figure of 4.5 million social homes in the country and the Tories claiming their proposal would make around 230,000 places available.
Tenants who do not qualify under the proposed policy would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.
SNP MSP Michelle Campbell told The National: “One day Kemi Badenoch is giving a job to a convicted antisemitic Nazi, the next the Tories are announcing plans to kick ‘foreigners’ out of their homes.
“This shows just how far the Tories have fallen into the gutter in their desperate attempts to keep up with Nigel Farage’s toxic agenda.”
A Labour Party spokesperson added: “This is an unserious, unworkable proposal, copied from Reform, that does nothing to tackle the housing crisis the Tories themselves created.
“People without Indefinite Leave to Remain are already ineligible for social housing, so this policy would primarily affect refugees and long-term UK residents who have contributed to this country but are not British citizens, including NHS staff.
“It would also leave more families at risk of homelessness, while driving up the use of temporary accommodation at the taxpayers’ expense.
“No amount of headline-chasing, or following Reform to the extremes, can hide the damage the Tories did to our housing system.
“The least they could do is acknowledge their failures and apologise.”
Green MP Hannah Spencer said: "The other parties can continue to blame people who came from other countries for all the problems in society but we won't be stooping to that level. It's terribly un-British."
Foreign nationals with settled status, refugee status, or specific humanitarian protections can currently qualify for social housing.
Asylum seekers are not eligible for social housing, unless in exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases.
Under the Tories’ plan, any single person currently living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish or EU citizen would lose their social home. This includes those with or without children.
Anyone with EU settled status would not be evicted.
For future tenancies, UK nationals and those with EU settled status would be eligible, however any new EU citizens without settled status would not be.
Couples, where neither of them are UK or EU citizens, and they do not have EU settled status, will lose their entitlement.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “Making Britain your home should be earned by working, paying tax and integrating.
“It should not come with a free ride on the benefits system. Britain cannot be a cash machine for the world.
“Labour has lost control of immigration and lost control of the welfare bill, and it is British families picking up the bill and sitting on waiting lists.
“The next Conservative government will make foreign nationals ineligible for social housing. Nearly 230,000 homes could go to British families.”
In 2024/25, 88.5% of main householders – the person in whose name the social home is rented – were UK or Irish nationals and 11.5% were non-UK/Irish nationals, according to the English Housing Survey.
There are an estimated 470,000 non-UK and non-Irish citizens living in social housing.
In June this year, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would evict all foreign nationals from social housing if his party was in power, claiming Britain is currently a “two-tier state against white people”.
