EU nationals based permanently in the UK have expressed alarm over a Reform UK plan to target their rights to accommodation and employment, saying the policy is a betrayal of promises made in the Brexit referendum 10 years ago.
Under updated migration policies, Nigel Farage’s party would evict all overseas nationals from social housing and make it notably more expensive for companies to employ them, with both policies also affecting EU nationals who have settled status.
Under the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU, people with such status have the permanent right to live and work in the UK, as well as to receive social security and pensions, as do family members.
Both the new policies would require a renegotiation of the Brexit deal, with the possibility that the EU would penalise UK nationals living in the bloc as a reciprocal policy, or impose trade barriers.
Announcing what he called the “migrants labour levy”, Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury spokesperson, said employers would have to pay higher national insurance for non-UK nationals, as well as an annual fee that would be more for lower earners, citing the possibility of £3,750 for someone on the “national living wage”, a surcharge of about 15%.
There would be no additional consideration given for EU nationals, even if they had been in the UK for decades, or had a UK national partner and children, Jenrick said, and his message for such people was that if they lost their job due to the levy they should leave.
“If you are in this country and you are not a British citizen, and you are somebody who will not be able to stay in the UK under a Reform government, then you should think of leaving the country.”
Campaign group the3million, which speaks up for the rights of EU nationals in the UK, has pointed out that the policies go against promises made by the leave campaign in the referendum that people’s rights would be protected, with Farage saying it would be “quite unreasonable” to push people out.
Daniel Sohege from the group, said: “For the last decade, EU citizens have faced uncertainty and fear about our future in the UK. We were told before the Brexit referendum that our rights would be respected. We were told when the withdrawal agreement was signed that our rights would be protected.
“Successive governments have failed to keep those promises. Now we are being told that in a couple of years time a potential Reform government could rip up our rights entirely. The UK is our home, but there is still a lot of concern, anger and worry about what the future will hold for us.”
One EU national, Nicole – who asked that her full name was not used – said she was worried about losing her long-term job with a business centre group and being forced to leave the UK after 37 years.
“I‘m not allowed to have dual citizenship because the Dutch are very difficult about it,” she said. “This is my home. I moved here when I was 18, so I’ve lived here twice as long as I ever lived in the Netherlands.
“I’ve been with my company a long time, so I would hope that they would support me, but I think it’s absolutely outrageous. It’s just pulling the rug from under people that have been here for so long, who have done everything right.”
Al Pinkerton, the Liberal Democrats Europe spokesperson, said: “Threatening hundreds of thousands of people who have made their lives here would only throw our economy into chaos, while failing to restore order and fairness to our immigration system.
“Resorting to these cruel, Trump-style politics will only isolate the UK further and invite damaging retaliation from our closest trading partners at a time when we need to work together to boost the economy, strengthen our defences and go for growth.”