Robert Jenrick has revealed that Reform would tear up a key part of the UK’s deal with the EU over Brexit – forcing EU citizens who have lived in Britain for years to potentially lose their jobs and be forced to leave the country.
The Reform UK MP said companies which employ foreign workers would have to pay higher national insurance, as well as a “migrant labour levy”, under a Nigel Farage government.
Mr Jenrick admitted his plans to prioritise British workers would mean EU citizens who were given settled status in the UK after Brexit will not be counted as “British workers”.
It comes as demarcation lines over Brexit are being redrawn 10 years after the EU referendum and ahead of Thursday’s crucial Makerfield by-election, where Andy Burnham is hoping to make a return to Westminster.
With Sir Keir Starmer pushing to put the UK back into the heart of Europe – and leading Labour figures such as Wes Streeting calling for a strategy to rejoin the bloc – Reform are using the Brexit status to rewrite immigration rules in a “British workers first” strategy.
If Reform had the chance to carry out this policy, it would mean the deal with the EU would collapse – leading to a potential trade war and new tariffs.
Monique Hawkins, acting chief executive of the3million, which represents EU citizens with settled status, said: “The proposals announced by Reform UK make a mockery of the promises that EU citizens were given when the UK left the European Union.
“For years, we were told that our rights would be protected by the Withdrawal Agreement. This is an international treaty between the UK and the EU, designed to provide certainty and security to the millions of people who had built their lives here in good faith, and not something which can so cavalierly be discarded on the whim of racist politics.
“Instead, though, we are once again being confronted with proposals that seek to divide workers, undermine equal treatment and turn migrants into political scapegoats. Introducing additional taxes or penalties linked to employing migrant workers risks creating a two-tier workforce, where people are judged not on their contribution but on where they come from.”
It would also mean that the 4.5 million EU citizens who were given full rights with the settled status scheme in the Brexit deal would find their rights eroded – even though many have been in the UK for decades.
Mr Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister turned Reform Treasury spokesperson, announced the new “British workers first, migrant workers second” tax policy to go alongside plans to cancel the visas of millions of migrants in the UK currently doing low-paid jobs.
Without offering any evidence, he claimed that preferential treatment for migrant workers was pushing up the cost of welfare with Brits preferring to stay at home.
Mr Jenrick also claimed that cheap migrant Labour is “undercutting British wages and standard of living” and means millions of Brits are now on welfare.
He announced “two big changes”, starting with scrapping Rachel Reeves’s national insurance hike for employers, which he says is a “job-destroying, self-harming jobs tax”.
However, the cut in national insurance contributions will be for “British workers only”, meaning employers will pay more tax for foreign workers.
The second measure will be a new employers’ migrant levy – an annual fee for each foreign worker they employ to target “cheap foreign labour”.
He did not set any rates for the new tax, arguing that they would need to do that nearer an election.
He said: “We are unashamedly on the side of the British people. We are going to design a tax system that backs British workers and puts their interests first every single time. What, why is that a controversial thing to say?
“I remember in 2008 when Gordon Brown said ‘British jobs for British workers’, and he was attacked for saying it back then.
“Well, Reform is actually going to do it this time. We are going to make sure that the tax system rewards people who are Brits, and British companies take on British workers.”
He added: “If you are in this country and you’re 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, because we want a country where people are here for the right reasons, who are economic contributors and an economy that works for British citizens.”
But political opponents lampooned the plans while government sources warned it would breach the EU withdrawal agreement, meaning a rise in food prices.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage’s latest half-baked plan would leave British businesses and British people worse off. Their proposals threaten to hike bills and leave working families paying the price. Reform is not on the side of working people and are simply making it up as they go along.”
Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “In their desperation to try to win Makerfield, Reform are running the most reckless and expensive by-election campaign in history, throwing out a litany of policies in the hope something sticks.
“Announcing tens of billions in entirely uncosted promises is not serious. It’s a symptom of a Party that deals only in gimmicks and headlines, with no real plan for government. Reform have not even bothered to set out how their numbers are meant to add up.”
