Reform Watch: Indefinite Leave to Remain plan has 'no basis in reality' and Humberside Mayor appears to support net zero
Each week we cast over eyes over what Reform UK have been up to - from proclamations to the detail of how their attempts to run councils are going.
The Lead is keeping an eye on Reform UK and their fellow travellers. Get in touch on X, Bluesky and Instagram or email ella@thelead.uk with tips and stories. We especially want to hear from readers whose local council is now run by Farage’s followers. In today’s edition:
Nigel Farage has been roundly condemned for his policy plan to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain, which would see hundreds of thousands of legal migrants deported.
Nigel Farage Pic: UK Parliament/Flickr The plan has been criticised by the likes of chancellor Rachel Reeves, who said it had “no basis in reality,” Liberal Democrat Ed Davey and shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who said it was “half-baked and unworkable”.
Reform has also said it plans to bar anyone other than British citizens from accessing welfare. Farage’s claim that it would save the country £230 billion is, however, based on erroneous figures. He also didn’t back up his claim that most migrants rely on benefits. Obviously.
Meanwhile, the Reform mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire appears to have gone against Reform’s “net-stupid-zero” line by saying he is “all for” cleaner air and green energy. “Who doesn’t like cleaner air and green energy?” he asked. We don’t need to answer that one.
According to a Guardian investigation, Reform UK took £100,000 in donations from a company that was threatened with insolvency by HMRC. It was originally set up in 2013 by a British Virgin Islands-based company of the same name and its owner is listed as a British company director. The interior design company uses stock images on its website to show work completed in the UK. Reform said it “carried out all required checks and confirmed that the donor was a permissible source being a UK registered company carrying out business in the UK.”
In further dodgy dealings, a Reform councillor in Doncaster has lost his committee positions after attempting to create a business, which would have dealt directly with the council to help manage Doncaster Sheffield Airport, for “financial gain”.
And, finally, Reform councillor John Allen, of Northumberland County Council, has been suspended over alleged online comments about wanting to shoot Keir Starmer, thanks to an investigation by Hope Not Hate. It comes after Nigel Farage recently challenged police to arrest social media users who he said had been using TikTok to call for him to be shot.
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