The FT has this headline this morning:
Reform UK has vowed to cut £50bn from the welfare bill by slashing benefits for foreign nationals and people with disabilities if it wins the next general election.
So, just what is a foreign national in their minds?
The question matters. For me, it is even rather personal. I receive a state benefit. It is the state old-age pension. I qualify for the full pension, having paid UK National Insurance for well more than the required number of years.
I am also a foreign national. I have both UK and Irish passports, but I have lived in the UK all my life, and nothing I can do will remove my entitlement to an Irish passport: that is embedded in Irish law, and Reform cannot change that.
I am far from alone in being in this situation. I know many who are, and many more who have the passports of other states, or entitlement to them. According to the last census, more than 1.2 million do this. I suspect the number has risen significantly since then in the aftermath of Brexit.
So will Reform deny us all benefits and state pensions? It is a necessary question. I am not sure there is a known answer. I am assuming the worst in that case. These people are possessed of toxic xenophobia.
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Reform have stated that they will expel all those EU citizens with Settled Status. That’s over 3 million people.
Agreed
The FAQs on the Reform website say that EU nationals with settled status will not lose their settled status but will lose their right to welfare payments. Whether this xenophobic bunch will stick to that if they get into power is another matter.
https://www.reformparty.uk/policy-faqs
this is what they say
https://www.reformparty.uk/policy-faqs
I am not clear if someone with settled status paying National Insurance and taxes, who loses their job will get unemployment benefits. And if not, might other countries retaliate against British people working overseas?
But it seems they are getting more extreme by the day…
That would see the end of any relationship with the EU, and all current agreements I would assume.
Of course, it is what Farage has wanted all along, but the cost to Britain would be a disaster.
Then there is Northern Ireland, as Reform don’t recognise European court jurisdiction, and things could very quickly get out of hand. Who is classed as a “Foreign” national there?
“Fortress Britain”… Insular, disliked, pariah of Europe.
Much to agree with
I remember an ex girlfriend many years ago getting worried as she was like Boris Johnson born in the US to English parents.
Didnt hold, although may have been entitled to a US passport and there was some proposal in the early 90’s that she thought might have adversely affected her.
That of course is before you get to The Common Travel Area between the UK & Ireland
They will just tie themselves in knots. The hostile environment policy has affected the partners of many British nationals. My former neighbour was Zimbabwean married to a British women. In the five years before he got citizenship he worked full-time, paid UK taxes and had two British children, but he couldn’t get a mortgage or be named on their family home. During this time on top of all the normal British taxes he paid an NHS surcharge. It was an expensive five years during which he had little rights. Then there all those of British heritage born overseas etc. What they really mean is anyone that might make demands on the state that they can offload. It is a despicable policy as it would include many who have worked here for many years and have no other home.
Thank you