Nigel Farage today vowed to block foreign nationals from receiving benefits and force hundreds of thousands of migrants with ‘settled status’ out of the UK. 

The Reform leader condemned legal permanent settlement for foreign nationals as a ‘scam’, warning it is a ‘timebomb’ that could bankrupt the country.

Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) allows those who have lived here for more than five years to receive benefits and apply for citizenship.

Reform estimates 3.8million migrants who arrived after the pandemic will be eligible for ILR between 2026 and 2030. 

Mr Farage suggested ending the status will save £234billion that would be paid out in benefits for them and their dependants in the coming decades.

Instead, individuals will have to reapply regularly for visas proving they are paying their own way and have good English.  

Speaking at a press conference in Westminster this morning, Mr Farage said people needed to focus on legal migration as well as illegal migration – such as Channel boat arrivals. 

‘Under a Reform government welfare will be for UK citizens only. Not foreign nationals,’ he said. 

But Mr Farage admitted the rule would not apply to around six million EU nationals living in the UK with settled status after Brexit.

And he dodged questions on what would happen to up to 430,000 non-EU nationals thought to have settled status currently.  

Critics have questioned the implications for the NHS of deporting migrants on lower salaries, who often work in the health sector. Reform has not decided what the minimum salary would be for visas. 

It is unclear what would happen to those with settled status who have British children, or to pensioners who no longer work.

The Centre for Policy Studies think-tank – which originally made the £234billion estimate for benefits costs from ILR – has since withdrawn it. 

Mr Farage openly conceded the task of sifting through millions of re-applications would be huge. 

‘We’re not for a minute pretending that going back through the backlog would be an easy thing to do,’ he said. 

Under Mr Farage’s plan, no new ILR awards would be made and migrants already allowed to live here under ILR – so-called settled status – would have it rescinded.

Mr Farage proposes that migrants living here would instead have to apply for a five-year renewable visa with stricter criteria, such as proving they can speak English and can earn a high salary, and would face restrictions on how many dependants could join them.

Those rejected would lose state benefits and be expected to leave voluntarily or face removal under the party’s tough plan for tackling illegal migration, known as Operation Restoring Justice.

Reform’s policy document states that the changes ‘will be done on a staggered and orderly basis to allow businesses to train British workers to replace them’. Reform said it is giving notice that ‘the era of cheap foreign labour is over’.

The qualifying period for citizenship – which is currently one year after being granted ‘settled status’ – would also be extended to seven years to prevent it being given ‘cheaply’.

Mr Farage said: ‘The Tories and Labour have turned the UK into a foodbank for the world.’

He told the press conference: ‘Far too many that have come don’t work, have never worked and never will work. 

‘The ability to bring dependents of all kinds, and when you realise that most that come are very low skilled, and on very low wages, you start to get a very very different picture. In fact, you start to get a massive benefits bill.’ 

Pointing to the surge in legal immigration after Brexit, Mr Farage said: ‘This is not what Brexit voters wanted, and it’s certainly not what any Conservative voter wanted from 2010 onwards.

‘Where at an election, after an election, after an election, they were promised that net migration would come down to tens of thousands a year, and we learn it was up to – in the worst year – a million.’

Reform’s policy chief Zia Yusuf said there would be a specific ‘skill shortage’ class of visa, but it would be subject to an annual cap. Employers would also have to pay a levy on workers that would go towards training Brits to do the job in future. 

Mr Yusuf acknowledged that nearly six million EU nationals with settled status in the UK would not be subject Reform’s plan or restrictions on benefits.

The party would instead try to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement terms on claiming benefits.

Mr Farage also confirmed that there would be no move to review and withdraw UK citizenship decisions.

‘If you’ve been granted UK citizenship you have been granted UK citizenship, to be absolutely clear, there should be no confusion over that,’ he said.

‘We would not retrospectively change that, because you become a legal citizen of this country. We would never, ever suggest otherwise.’

Mr Farage said workers could expect a pay rise if it went ahead under a Reform government, because it would reduce the supply of workers.

He said: ‘I do repeat the point that mass, unskilled migration has driven in many, many cases, the minimum wage to become the maximum wage. Under our proposals, would pay go up, yes it would go up a bit, and I think that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Would our proposals help train British people for jobs? It would.’

The party’s head of policy, Zia Yusuf, said: ‘If we’re serious about saying we’re going to cut net immigration to zero, we’re going to embark on deporting people who are here illegally, we are going to stop the abuse of our welfare system, yes there will be some businesses who do have to pay more for that labour.’

The announcements drew an angry response from London mayor Sadiq Khan. 

‘Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain,’ he said.

‘They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city.

‘Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.’

Dr Ben Brindle of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said: ‘Under Reform’s proposals, migrants living in the UK would either be on temporary visas, such as work visas, or would be British citizens.

‘Around 430,000 held indefinite leave to remain at the end of 2024. Removing this status, which has been considered secure under successive governments, would be exceptionally unusual. 

‘To acquire ILR, most migrants will have had multiple immigration applications accepted by the government and will have been given the right to permanent status. 

‘While some have been in the UK for 5 to 10 years, others will have lived in the UK for decades, and may have British children who have only ever lived in the UK. It is difficult to find any precedent for such a change in a high-income democracy.

‘Assuming the policy applies to all newly arriving migrants and not just those on work visas, the largest impacts would likely be on refugees and the family members of British citizens, who are less likely to meet economic or language requirements. 

‘Those who don’t meet the stringent citizenship criteria would either face long periods with temporary status or may lose it entirely and be liable for removal. 

‘This would almost certainly result in lower public spending on benefits, but would also lead to increased poverty among certain groups, who would remain in the UK but with less secure status.’

Downing Street said Reform had no interest in tackling the issues facing the country but just sought to ‘foster division’.

The Prime Minister’s press secretary said: ‘Every week Nigel Farage sets out unrealistic, unworkable and unfunded plans.

‘You’ve hear the Prime Minister talk about the politics of grievance that Reform thrives on.

‘They don’t want to tackle the issues facing the country, they want to foster division.’

She said Sir Keir believes the country is at a crossroads between ‘national renewal’ and ‘the path of division and decline which Reform wants to put the country on’.

On a visit to Gatwick Airport this morning, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: ‘I want to bring down illegal migration. This Government is bringing down migration. We have sent a record number of people who have no right to be in our country home.

‘We’re reducing the use of hotels for asylum seekers and we’ve made an agreement with France to send people back who come over on small boats.

‘Those are all steps towards our ambitions to get a grip of this situation that we inherited.

‘It is a difficult challenge, I think everybody can see that, but simple gimmicks like those put forward by Reform that have no basis in reality and where the numbers just fall apart – that’s not the way to tackle a very serious issue, and this Labour Government are getting on and doing that.’

In a statement today, the CPS today: ‘As part of announcing a package of policies on Indefinite Leave to Remain, Reform UK have alluded to research published by the Centre for Policy Studies in February of this year. 

‘Part of the research calculated a ballpark figure for the financial cost of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who will soon be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).

‘After the CPS’ report was published, the Office for Budget Responsibility revised their definitions of some of the fiscal data contained within our report, meaning that the overall cost estimates should no longer be used. 

‘The CPS has been in communication with the OBR and other experts for clarity and will be publishing an updated estimate in due course.

‘The changes do not impact our analysis of the visa data or projections for the numbers likely to gain ILR on different visa routes.’