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Nigel Farage's immigration proposals are revolutionary, writes Andrew Marr

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Nigel Farage's immigration proposals are revolutionary, writes Andrew Marr
Nigel Farage's immigration proposals are revolutionary, writes Andrew Marr. Picture: LBC/Alamy
Andrew Marr

By Andrew Marr

Nigel Farage’s proposals for abolishing settled leave to remain in this country and presumably, therefore deporting hundreds of thousands of people who have arrived here legally, and have been here for many years, are nothing short of revolutionary.

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The numbers are enormous.

By the end of last year, there were about 430,000 people with indefinite leave to remain. According to the government, there are more than 200,000 of them claiming benefits.

Oh yes, and there are nearly 6 million EU citizens in the UK, who have got post-Brexit rights to be here but aren’t covered by this particular Reform policy at all. But enough of the numbers.

Who are these people? How long have some of them been here? Are they working? Where? How much tax do we get from them? It’s very hard to get answers.

Reform talks of low wage workers with dependants on benefits and claims that deporting so many people - and remember, we are not talking here about illegal immigrants - would save more than £200 billion in welfare payments.

Other party say this is nonsense, but presumably the welfare savings would be big. For now I just want you to imagine hundreds of thousands of people who have been living here peaceably and quietly, working away, being arrested and forcibly expelled.

I want you to think about the businesses instantly shuttered, all the places where experienced people suddenly vanish, their homes emptied, the childhood friendship groups broken, the neighbours up in arms.

I want to ask, where does it end? Is it too much to say - blood on the streets?

This story is too big just to shrug, report, and move on from; it is as I say, a revolutionary proposal put before the British people.

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