'Britain isn't the world's foodbank': Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants ‘to save billions’
The Reform UK leader pledged 'mass deportations' if his party came into power.
Nigel Farage has vowed welfare payments would be restricted to British nationals if Reform UK wins the next general election, claiming the plan will save hundreds of billions of pounds over several decades.
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The Reform leader said taxpayers are being “absolutely hammered” paying benefits to non-British citizens.
"Under a Reform government, welfare will be for UK citizens only. It will not be for foreign-born nationals," he said.
"We are not the world's foodbank. It is not for us to provide welfare for people coming in from all over the world."
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This comes after Mr Farage promised "mass deportations" of migrants by abolishing indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
Reform UK also said it would force those who already have settled status to reapply for a new stricter visa.
Migrants can currently apply for indefinitely ILR after five years. The proposed new rules would 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.
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."
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said on X: "Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain.
"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."
Asked by LBC political correspondent Aggie Chambre whether Reform had modelled how many businesses might close as a result of the policy, Mr Farage responded: "If you actually have a look at what has happened to UK productivity since (Sir Tony) Blair launched the mass migration experiment, you will find it has actually been, in productive terms, a disaster for this country.
"So how many firms that could have prospered, haven't. How many have gone bust that shouldn't have done? It's led to a change of culture that has been ruinous".
The savings to the taxpayer would exceed £230 billion, Reform's head of policy Zia Yusuf claimed, but the Centre for Policy Studies - which provided the data that figure is based on - has since retracted it.
