Are all of us foreigners just going to be told to pack up and leave if Reform win?

[Onegingerhead]

I might be totally unreasonable here (or not), but please hear me out.
(Bloody) foreigner here — I’ve lived in the UK since 2001. Built my whole life here: house, husband, DC, the lot. Worked the whole time in a field that requires the highest level of qualification.
I’m getting increasingly worried about the talk of Reform winning in 2029. Some even say it could be sooner if Labour are pushed into early elections. This week (as we all heard) our beloved Reform suggested rescinding ILR or even settled status from Europeans. God knows what else they’ll come up with, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they went after naturalised Brits next and started revoking citizenship, just to please the voters.
I know a lot of foreign-born women — some married to born-and-bred Brits, some to other Europeans (not always from the same country), some to men from overseas. All sorts of combinations.
So what do you think lies ahead for us? Will we be politely asked to leave, or will things just get so hostile that we’re pushed out anyway? And how likely is it that people who aren’t very white, or who have an accent, will face more discrimination in work?
I’m meeting my foreign friends tonight and we’ll be talking about it. For most of us, moving now would be incredibly difficult. We’re late 30s to early 50s, and starting over in a new country isn’t exactly easy. Some of us are married to men from different countries entirely, and we don’t even speak each other’s languages well enough to get proper jobs there.

AIBU and should think we will actually be allowed to stay?
AINBU sorry but you’d better start planning your move now

It’s hard to say. One of their MPs, Rupert Lowe, is all about the mass deportations. I think it would be too easy to convince yourself that they don’t really mean it. They do.

The most powerful thing you can do is advocate for yourself. Break through the discomfort barrier to remind people in your life that when he says immigrant, he means you and the protect of you having to leave the country. It’s like the Brexit vote, people believed that no-one they knew would be affected

Get citizenship. They only remove that from terrorists.

Why, because marriages are formed where both parties are speaking English as a second language? It’s more common than you’d think in expat circles

You’ve come to a different country to your birth country but have not yet formalized your citizenship?
Obviously some documented form of permanent residency isn’t the same as citizenship and maybe certain policies for non citizens can be changed.
You will need to consider your particular circumstances.

Of course not. If all ‘foreigners’ left tomorrow the NHS would collapse for a start. That just won’t happen.

It’s the illegal immigrants people have a problem with, not those who have come here legitimately to work hard and contribute to society.

Rupert Lowe isn’t a Reform MP anymore, he’s now Indepdendent

I am naturalised, but I m still worried.

Rupert Lowe is not a Reform MP and secondly, he has said NOTHING about deporting settled residents in your position.

Stop scaremongering.

Quite, it’s incredibly common.
My best friend is Spanish, hubby is French.
It happens a lot in academic environment

I cant imagine them removing citizenship from people unless they are proven terrorists.

I also hope this country is not mad enough to vote these chancers in - they are not even proper political party, ffs. No policies apart from removing immigrants and privatising everything.

It’s 4 yrs away a bit premature to be thinking about something that may never happen .

I am worried too. I was born here so I might be ok. My parents are from Hong Kong on BNO passports which are their only passports. They are awaiting citizenship. They have nowhere else to go. They are in their 70s but have come with savings and large pensions so I fully expect they will fund their own retirement and private healthcare. I’m very worried their citizenship application will be scuppered by Reform.

They also read the Daily Mail and have bought into all the boats and hotels fear mongering so they have a lot in common with some of the locals. 🙄

As long as you can make a Yorkshire Pudding you will be totally fine. 😉

No, I wouldn't worry in the slightest op

Based on the previous Tory government (increasingly similar personnel) they will rack up the nasty rhetoric, will be completely ineffective in actually doing anything by legal routes; and based on Reform as a party they will be delighted when there is street violence as a result of their shit-stirring and they can then ‘crack down’. They will cosy up to Russia (see recent guilty plea by former head of Reform UK in Wales to charges of taking Russian bribes).

So my prediction is that they won’t achieve much in policy, but that the environment will become increasingly difficult and unpleasant for you, and any paperwork where you have to put your head above the parapet will be a nightmare. I’d be particularly concerned if I were Ukrainian.

I'm also from another country although I'm not highly qualified, but my LTR is based on my British ancestry.
I've been here since the 1990s, like the op my whole family and life is here.
I have a British accent and most people who meet me would be surprised I'm "an immigrant".
I've paid taxes, built a business with employees, my dcs are all university graduates.

Why haven't I gained citizenship yet? Mainly because LTR has always been as good as, I'm a resident, I can vote, I pay NI and access the NHS.
It also costs a lot of money and being honest I've thought the people who can afford it are doing it for monetary gain so it's a worthwhile investment for them. Seems a bit backwards to me.

Apply for citizenship. I did that years ago for peace of mind and because I did not trust the Tories...

Peeps like you OP are welcome here, working, paying your taxes, contributing to society and hopefully intergrating.
It's the illegals that are the problem and many people object to not people like yourselves.

It's not premature at all, if the OP wants to relocate it takes time.

i was kind of like this, but Brit in an EU country. And right up to the Brexit referendum i though "aw, it will be grand"

So now I have dual citizenship, which is fine for me but a pain in many respects. And at least it's not as expensive to do that here as it is in the UK. But in your shoes? Get it formalised and as watertight as possible. Just in case.

Have family in the USA who have lived there very happily for 30 years on green cards - but after Trumps last stint got increasingly worried that he might get in again. He was very much for revoking Green cards during his first presidency. So applied for citizenship during Biden’s years just in case. They are now worried that he still might come after them even though they are now legitimate citizens. I see Reform copying the Trump playbook. My concern is that the conservative vote is essentially splitting across the two parties and we end up with some mad Tory/reform coalition.

if I were you and wanted to stay here then I would start the citizenship process.

Hard to say but why not apply for a British a passport now to be safe?

If only illegals are the problem, why dors Reform want to revoke ILRs retrospectively? ILR holders are legal by definition.

Also many countries don't allow dual nationality.

I had this discussion with my Malaysian friend who has lived and worked as a nurse in the UK for 50 years, recently retired.

She said that Malaysia doesn't allow dual-citizenship and if you take out another citizenship you have to renounce your Malaysian one (how they find out I don't know but that's another matter).

All these decades she's been happy with Indefinite Leave to Remain.

I suppose it's like British people who retire to Spain they wouldn't want to give up their UK citizenship.

I can't see the UK going down the road of mass deportations... but the threat of it must be very unsettling for people who have made their lives here, legally, for decades.