REFORM UK have pledged to overhaul Britain’s system for settled immigrants as part of their growing push to prove they are the country’s harshest party on immigration.
The party have unveiled plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain, which confers settled status on people who have moved to the UK.
The policy has been condemned as "desperate and despicable" and there are warnings that it could tear apart families and lead to tens of thousands of deportations of people with roots in Britain.
What is indefinite leave to remain?
It gives immigrants the full rights to work, study and live in Britain for as long as they wish.
People can apply under different conditions depending on their status. If they are working, they can apply for indefinite leave to remain – usually after five years of living in the UK. This sometimes carries salary requirements.
People with family in the UK, who are Commonwealth citizens or who have lived here for 10 years are also eligible to apply.
Why would Reform UK scrap indefinite leave to remain?
The party have focused on the policy because it entitles immigrants to claim benefits. The party has been unable to calculate exactly how much this costs the UK Government.
Reform UK have previously said that it could save the Exchequer £230 billion, citing research by the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies think tank. The research group has since disowned this, saying it was based on 800,000 migrants being granted indefinite leave to remain by 2040, which it said no longer holds.
Nigel Farage has claimed he expects the savings to be “considerably larger”.
Non-EU migrants account for just 2.7% of Universal Credit claims in the UK, compared with 9.7% for EU citizens.
Under Reform UK's plans, even people with indefinite leave to remain currently would lose the status and they would be forced to reapply for a visa every five years. This would be accompanied by tougher visa restrictions, including higher income thresholds, a better standard of English and a higher residency requirement of seven years minimum.
Are EU citizens affected?
They could be. People who moved to Britain from the European Union pre-Brexit were able to apply for settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme before the end of June 2021.
This means that migrants after that time, from anywhere in the world, must claim indefinite leave to remain if they want full rights to live, work and study in the UK.
However, Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf (above) has indicated that the UK could seek to prevent EU citizens from claiming benefits, which would require opening up negotiations with Brussels.
He said: “The answer is no in terms of EU settled status but there is a caveat, there are a lot of EU nationals in this country who are drawing on Universal Credit.
“So you can expect Nigel’s government to open negotiations with the European Union specifically about the welfare aspect. But as Nigel has said the big issue we’re talking about here is the non-EU numbers.”
