Reform plans to tear up key plank of Brexit deal as it vows to hike taxes for employers hiring foreign workers
Robert Jenrick has announced that Reform would tear up a key part of the UK’s deal with the EU on Brexit, forcing EU citizens who have lived in Britain for years to potentially lose their jobs and leave the country.
Companies employing foreign workers will have to pay “migrant worker tax” as well as higher national insurance under Nigel Farage’s government, a Reform UK MP has said.
Mr Jenrick admitted that plans to prioritize British workers would mean EU citizens granted settled status in the UK after Brexit would not be counted as “British workers”.
It comes as the border lines on Brexit are being redrawn 10 years after the EU referendum and ahead of Thursday’s crucial Makerfield by-election, where Labour’s Andy Burnham hopes to return to Westminster to challenge for prime minister.
As Sir Keir Starmer pushes to put the UK back at the heart of Europe and leading Labor figures such as Wes Streeting call for a strategy to rejoin the bloc, Reformation is shamelessly using the Brexit status quo to rewrite immigration rules with a “British workers first” strategy.
If Reform had the chance to implement this policy, it would mean the deal with the EU would collapse, leading to a potential trade war and new tariffs.
It will also mean that the rights of 3 million EU citizens who have full rights under the settled status scheme in the Brexit deal are being eroded, even though most of them have been in the UK for years.
Mr Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister and Reform Treasury spokesman, announced plans to cancel the visas of millions of immigrants already working in low-paid jobs in the UK, as well as a new “British workers first, migrant workers second” tax policy.
Without providing any evidence, he claimed that preferential treatment for migrant workers had increased welfare costs as Britons chose to stay at home.
Mr Jenrick also claimed that cheap immigrant labor was “depressing British wages and living standards” and that this meant millions of Britons were now on benefits.
He announced “two big changes”, starting with the scrapping of Rachel Reeves’s national insurance boost for employers, which he said was a “job-destroying, self-destructive jobs tax”.
But the cut in national insurance contributions will be for “British workers only”; This means employers will pay more taxes for foreign workers.
The second measure will be a new immigration tax on employers; an annual wage for each foreign worker they employ to target “cheap foreign labor.”
He did not set any rate for the new tax and argued that it would have to be done closer to the election.
But he confirmed that employers hiring settled EU citizens will not receive a national insurance discount and will have to pay the new immigrant jobs tax proposed by Reform.
“We stand unashamedly on the side of the British people. We will design a tax system that supports British workers and puts their interests first. So, why is this controversial?”
“I remember in 2008 Gordon Brown said ‘British jobs for British workers’ and was attacked at the time for saying that.
“Well, Reformation will actually do it this time. We’ll make sure the tax system rewards British people and British companies hire British workers.”
He added: “If you are in this country and you are not a British citizen and you are someone who cannot stay in the UK under a Reform government, then you should consider leaving the country, because we want a country with an economy where people are here for the right reasons, contributing economically and employing British citizens.”
