Farage vows to expel hundreds of thousands of legal migrants from UK – Politics live – UK Times

Nigel Farage’s new migration pledges have been criticised as being “half baked”.

Cost-saving figures used by Reform UK have since been disowned by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) think tank that published them, prompting opposition to criticise the party’s plans.

A Labour source said: “Farage’s not even half-baked announcement has already fallen apart. Yet again, Reform have no credible plan and their only answer is ‘don’t know’.”

Sir Ed Davey has declined to say whether he would join a coalition with Labour after the next election if it meant preventing a Reform UK government.

The party leader has said during the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth that he believes there is a moral duty to keep Nigel Farage’s party out of government.

But asked repeatedly by the BBC whether this meant he would consider entering into a coalition with Sir Keir Starmer’s party, the Lib Dem leader did not give a clear answer.

Asked whether he would rule out a coalition, he said: “What I want to do is make sure we have as many Liberal Democrat seats and Liberal Democrat votes at the next election.

“And by the way, we’re on track because we got our best result for over 100 years.”

Nigel Farage is expected to hold a press conference this morning.

The Reform UK leader will speak about the party’s new migration pledges at 11am.

We will bring you the latest updates here.

Zia Yusuf has claimed Reform UK’s new migration plans would save the UK taxpayer over £230 billion.

However, the figure has come from a Centre for Policy Studies report, which is under dispute.

A note on the report says overall cost estimates published in it “should no longer be used”.

As they unveiled their new pledge, Reform UK’s policy chief wrote in The Telegraph that it was partially in response to what they branded the “Boriswave”.

They said hundreds of thousands of migrants who came to the UK under more relaxed post-Brexit rules introduced by Boris Johnson’s will in January begin to qualify for permanent residence.

Mr Farage will reportedly 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 response to Reform UK’s plans, a government spokesperson said: “People here illegally rightly do not get anything from our benefits system.

“Foreign nationals usually have to wait five years to claim universal credit and we’re looking at increasing this to 10 years.

“We inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling benefits bill. That’s why we’re taking action and reforming the system and have seen the proportion of universal credit payments to foreign nationals fall since last July.”

The Reform UK say they want to abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR), for which legal migrants can currently apply after five years, and force them to renew their visa every five years.

Applicants would have to meet certain criteria, including a higher salary threshold and better standard of English.

They 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.

The new visa would also prevent any access to benefits under the plans set out by Zia Yusuf.

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would end the right of migrants to apply for permanent residency in the UK after five years, and force those who already have settled status to reapply for a new stricter visa.

The Reform UK leader wants to abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR), for which migrants can currently apply after five years, and force them to renew their visa every five years.

Zia Yusuf said Reform’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”.