Reform branded ‘threat to democracy’ over Farage plan to remove thousands of migrants with leave to be in UK
Good morning. Last month Reform UK unveiled its “Operation Restoring Justice” plan for the mass deportation of people living in Britain without permission to be here. It was aimed at illegal immigrants, but Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, proposed deportation on an unprecedented scale , without being clear as to quite how many people would be affected. Today he is committing Reform (which is currently well ahead of other parties in national opinion polls) to an even more draconian approach. He says Reform would abolish indefinite leave to remain – the immigration status that allows people to remain in the UK for as long as they want, often the first step towards citizenship.
Crucially, this would not just be for new applicants; it would be retrospective, applying to people who already have indefinite leave to remain. Instead, people would have to apply for a five-year visa, with tougher conditions.
In an article for the Daily Mail, Farage says this policy is intended to reverse what he calls “the Boriswave” – the huge increase in legal migration that happened when Boris Johnson was prime minister.
The Johnson government allowed the number of people getting work visas to soar largely to compensate for the fact that EU workers were leaving because of Brexit, which was the policy that Farage arguably did more than anyone else to make happen. But he does not address this point in his article.
Instead, he says:
Today, I can announce that Reform will go even further.
We will abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status, which grants migrants the right to live, work and study in the UK permanently with full access to Britain’s health and benefits system.
This threatens to bankrupt our bloated welfare state.
We will rescind ILR statuses that have already been granted. We will also restore the treasured status of British citizenship.
Why is this so urgent? Starting from January 2026, if nothing is done to stop it, those 3.8 million migrants will become eligible for ILR.
Let’s be clear, these migrants are not doctors, engineers or entrepreneurs. Many of those eligible for ILR never work and never will. Many are young and old dependants who followed family members here. They are now a burden on the welfare state …
Once we abolish ILR, foreign nationals who want to work here will have 180 days to apply for a tough, new five-year renewable visa. They will have no right to benefits or healthcare without insurance. And no right to bring dependants, unless they are high earners who can afford to keep them.
We are giving British business plenty of notice that the era of cheap foreign labour is over.
In a separate article for the Daily Express, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of government efficiency, is explicit about how this is intended to ensure hundreds of thousands of people leave the country.
These changes will 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. Many of those who will lose their leave to remain are entirely dependent on the welfare state and will leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits. Those that don’t will be subject to immigration enforcement as part of our mass deportation programme – Operation Restoring Justice.
Reform currently only have five MPs but, given what the polls are saying, and the breakdown of support for the traditional parties the prospect of Farage being the next PM is being taken seriously. No British government in the modern era has contemplated a deportation policy on this scale, and what Farage is proposing is close to “remigration”, something that has been taboo in mainstream UK politics since Enoch Powell was sacked from the Tory shadow cabinet after his rivers of blood speech.
The Liberal Democrats are holding their conference this week and in interviews this morning Ed Davey, their leader, said his party was best placed to defeat Reform. Branding Reform a “threat to our democracy, to things we hold dear, British values – decency, tolerance, respect for the rule of law”, he said the Lib Dems were the only party beating them in local elections.
Morning: Liberal Democrats resume their conference debates in Bournemouth. Victoria Collins, the science spokesperson, is speaking at 11.05am, Calum Miller, the foreign affairs spokesperson, at 2.40pm, and at 2.55pm there is a “Reformwatch” session with councillors. There is a fuller agenda here.
Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is on a visit to Gatwick to promote the government’s plan to allow the construction of a second runway there.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
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Updated at 05.22 EDT