Reform plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants

[Twiglets1]

BBC report following Farage's press conference this afternoon:

Reform UK has announced it would abolish the right of migrants to qualify for permanent settlement in the UK after five years, if the party wins the next election.

Under the plans, Reform would abolish the right of migrants to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) - which gives migrants rights and access to benefits - and reapply for new visas with tougher rules.

Reform will also unveil plans to bar anyone other than British citizens from accessing welfare. The party claims their plans would save £234bn over several decades.

Reform said it would replace ILR with visas that force migrants to reapply every five years. That includes hundreds of thousands of migrants currently in the UK.
Applicants would also have to meet certain criteria, including a higher salary threshold and standard of English.

The announcement launches Reform's fresh assault on what they brand the "Boriswave" - 3.8 million people who entered the UK after Brexit under looser rules brought in by Boris Johnson's administration.

Speaking at a press conference, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the "main reason" for the policy was to "wake everybody up to the Boris wave".

Hundreds of thousands of these migrants, who have come to the UK since 2021, will soon qualify for permanent residence under the ILR scheme.

Reform said the changes would not apply to EU nationals whose settled status is protected under the European Union Withdrawal Agreement, who make up the majority of benefit claimants by people with ILR.

But EU nationals not benefiting from the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement will be subject to the new system.

Reform will also introduce a new scheme called Acute Skills Shortage Visas (ASSV) for jobs in crisis. Under the scheme, firms can hire one worker from abroad only if they train one at home.

Reform will also raise the average wait for UK citizenship from six years to seven.

Reform say their policy is designed to bring Britain into line with other countries such as the US and United Arab Emirates (UAE) and save the UK more than £234bn over what it calls the "lifetime of the average migrant".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c930xypxpqpo

Yes an end to dual citizenship was announced yesterday. Given very little coverage though.

I did not spot that at all. That's also a massive change, particularly when combined with the announcement about scrapping ILR. Has this been reported anywhere?

I think we're just into semantics now.

If somebody who is legally and indefinitely resident, is now retrospectively rendered illegal, and thus finds themselves having to leave the UK, you can say they've not been deported because they haven't been handcuffed and physically hauled onto a plane. But their lives have been retrospectively messed up by Nigel&Co, and somehow that is OK because it was done with weasel words and not overt force.

So Reform wants to strip British citizens of dual Commonwealth or Irish citizenship, or make them emigrate to their other place of citizenship? That will also lead to fewer British taxpayers.

I saw it in the Times yesterday - mentioned it on a different thread. But also covered in the Guardian. I'll see if I can get the FT report.

I can access the Times...I will have a look. I wonder why this hasn't been picked up more?

It was on the Times live feed yesterday morning.

Yes. He explicitly stated that he is aware that it will mean forcibly separating families in which one spouse/ parent is a non-UK citizen and has been living and working in the UK legally for decades with indefinite leave to remain.

He said “that’s why we’re warning people now”.

Apparently he thinks it’s perfectly acceptable and reasonable to separate husbands, wives and children by forcibly removing and deporting people who’ve abided by all immigration laws and contributed to UK society and tax revenues for decades. If they earn less than whatever income threshold he sets (£60k is their current stated intention) or their income drops below this threshold at any point in the future they will be unable to renew their visa and will be deported.

Even if they do earn this amount currently they must never be temporarily unemployed, must never become ill, and can never retire (especially as he also stated that only UK citizens will be eligible for state pensions regardless of whether they’ve worked and paid tax in the UK throughout their working lives).

Pure xenophobia.

It’s beyond me how he thinks he will attract any immigrants earning over £60k given UK living standards have already fallen off a cliff in comparison to comparable European countries, Australia, Canada and the US, with much lower comparative salaries in the UK, very high taxes on those earning above average salaries, services and infrastructure that would shame a developing country, and then also a racist environment to make them feel super welcome here if Reform are elected. What an exciting prospect for ambitious and talented young people (and the reason why so many of our own are leaving already)!

A very fast collapse of the economy and services awaits if Reform are elected because our skills shortages can’t be met without immigrants and our spending commitments can’t be met without the taxes paid by immigrants, not to mention that the rest of his proposed policies equate to much lower taxes and simultaneously much higher spending with no explanation whatsoever of how this would be funded. It would make the Truss debacle seem like a momentary, insignificant hiccup. The markets are all well aware of this so the moment election results were announced the markets would tank, before they even carried out any of their lunacy. Perhaps his herd of unicorns have found a bottomless pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…

As I said I was referring to the ‘deportation centres’ posts. Idk why people are envisaging those for around 800k people but it’s not going to be how the majority react.

I suspect because many Britons (even in media) are automatically connecting dual citizenship = boat person, not dual citizen = Briton with Irish grandparent.

In that situation and you've been in the country 5 -10 yrs then it's probably best to apply for citizenship rather than another ilr visa in that case. (And I'm saying this without judgement, my DH has been here for decades on ILR but with no real incentive to apply for citizenship)

I hadn't seen the revoking of dual citizenship though, that flew under the radar for me.

We are in agreement, then. I also don't think (despite some keen proposals on the other thread) that we'll have race riots and 800K capacity internment camps. People's good-faith lives will be ripped apart, not with a bang but with a whimper.

Me too. My DH made the decision to give up his original citizenship in order to take British citizenship a few years ago., because his country of origin didn't allow dual citizenship.It was an incredibly tough decision and one which he has often questioned since.

If ILR goes and nobody is allowed dual citizenship, there will be a lot more people with some very tough decisions to make.

They haven’t said they’ll revoke dual citizenship. The issue is that some countries don’t allow dual citizenship. Therefore, if people who currently have ILR wanted to apply for UK citizenship many would have to relinquish their citizenship of their birth country. This would be an incredibly dangerous thing for them to do if there is a prospect of a racist and xenophobic Reform Government which is openly stating these kinds of policies before it’s even elected, don’t you think?

What they are planning to do is revoke ILR entirely, so nobody can have the status of a permanent resident in the UK unless they have UK citizenship, including many people who have had ILR for decades. And if at any point any of these individuals earns less than the income threshold set, or becomes temporarily unemployed or sick and can’t work, or wants to retire, or is even accused of a crime (pending trial and no conviction) the visa that they will be forced to apply to renew every 5 years may be refused and they will be deported.

In the context of the above, it should also be noted that Reform has explicitly stated its intentions to undermine the rule of law and independence of the judiciary.

Yes, well, this is where we are at - although not because of the income threshold but, just moving forward, it seems like the sensible thing to do - even if he is moaning about this citizenship ceremony.

I'm struggling to find anything definitive about their policy on dual citizenship. AI suggests that they may be planning to ban it for new migrants but not existing ones...is that right?

"Farage and Yusuf brushed off concerns that their policies, including plans to ban dual citizenship, would have a detrimental impact on the economy."

(Guardian - What are Nigel Farage’s immigration plans – and do his sums add up? - very end of the article)

I know its only the Guardian so it doesnt count.
But I definitely read it somewhere else yesterday because I immediately sent a message to a friend. And the Guardian isnt my choice of newspaper.

I sincerely hope that the overreach will repel more people from Reform

Oh good, the situation is as I first described it then.

Yes, as I said, I think it's back of a beer mat kind of policy but I don't think it's as dire as people describe it.

Reddit seems to go into detail with a question on it. And it seems yes to this

Ok- but if Reform win the next election, they will need to get a majority to pass a bill reflecting these bonkers policies, and then there will be the House of Lords who will definitely send it back and then there will be appeals (assuming the ECHR isn’t revoked by then). I wonder if any of this could actually get through?

If Reform win the next election they will have a majority.
The HoL are required to pass anything in a manifesto (ie what the majority of the public has explicitly agreed to). There are no other constitutional safeguards.

It certainly could. The House of Lords can be overridden or overstuffed (the latter referred to yesterday by Farage as a possibility).

https://davidallengreen.com/2025/08/yes-an-incoming-illiberal-and-radical-uk-government-would-have-absolute-constitutional-power/

Well it’s the “elective dictatorship” described by Halisham or you can look at Hennessy’s “good chap” theory. There is very little to stop a government of any kind legislating like this - the tacit understanding between Labour and Conservative is that being extreme in one Parliament tends to encourage similar conduct by another government.

Reform aren’t that kind of party