Nigel Farage has said Reform UK wants to tackle the “Boriswave” by ending the right of legal migrants to apply for permanent residency, or indefinite leave to remain in the UK after five years in the country.
The Reform UK leader also said he will force migrants to re-apply for a visa every five years and make those who already have settled status re-apply for a new stricter visa.
Mr Farage has said applicants would have to meet stricter criteria, such as a higher salary threshold and better standard of English than is currently required.
This comes after the UK has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants settle in the country after post-Brexit policies implemented by former prime minister Boris Johnson, which Reform UK are branding the “Boriswave”.
What is the Boriswave?
The “Boriswave” is the term used to describe the large numbers of migrants who settled in the UK after Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister, implemented post-Brexit migration rules.
Mr Johnson, who served as Conservative Prime Minister from 2019 to 2022, implemented new rules on immigration after Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016.
Johnson implemented a “points based” immigration system with the hopes of attracting highly skilled workers into the country to “take control” of UK borders.
However, data from the Home Office revealed that in 2022, 572,815 applications to extend a foreign person’s stay in the UK were accepted, which was 42 per cent more than a year earlier and 86 per cent more than in 2019, according to Home Office statistics.
The purpose of the points-based system was to “reduce overall levels of migration and to give top priority to those with the highest skills and the greatest talents”, including scientists, engineers, academics and other highly-skilled workers, according to the UK government’s policy statement.
Under the new system, migrants had to score a total of 70 points to be eligible to apply for residency in the UK.
Categories were rated from zero to 20 points, with more desirable characteristics such as an offer of employment by an approved sponsor, a salary of £26,500 or above and a job shortage in the individual’s field amounting to 20 points.
One of the main purposes of the stricter rules was to reduce the number of lower-skilled workers coming to the UK from abroad.
Under Johnson’s government, free movement for EU citizens ended from 1 January 2021.
Why is Nigel Farage hitting out at legal immigrants?
Reform UK leader Mr Farage is concerned with the impacts legal migrants in the UK are having on the welfare systems and the cost it passes to taxpayers.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Farage will tell a Monday press conference: “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. The Boriswave will bankrupt us.
“Reform will deal with Boriswave, the biggest betrayal of voters’ trust in modern times.”
In contrast to the current system, Mr Farage’s new worker visa would not give settled migrants access to the welfare state or free services from the NHS.
Farage has also said migrants 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.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s chief of policy said the party’s proposals would “lead to hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK, which will be done on a staggered and orderly basis to allow businesses to train British workers to replace them”.
Mr Yusuf claimed savings from the proposed policy would exceed £230 billion.
This comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing an increasing amount of pressure to confront migration in the UK, after his “one in one out” deal with France has only seen three people deported since it was introduced.
