Rachel Reeves says Reform UK’s immigration plans have ‘no basis in reality’
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has claimed the Reform UK immigration plans have “no basis in reality”.
In an interview this morning, asked about Farage’s claims that he could save taxpayers £234bn by abolishing indefinite leave to remain (see 10.52pm), she said:
The numbers that Reform have come out with overnight have already begun to disassemble.
And, look, I want to bring down illegal migration. This government is bringing down migration. We have sent a record number of people who have no right to be in our country home.
We’re reducing the use of hotels for asylum seekers and we’ve made an agreement with France to send people back who come over on small boats.
Those are all steps towards our ambitions to get a grip of this situation that we inherited.
It is a difficult challenge, I think everybody can see that, but simple gimmicks like those put forward by Reform that have no basis in reality and where the numbers just fall apart – that’s not the way to tackle a very serious issue, and this Labour government are getting on and doing that.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s press secretary accused Farage of fosterinng division. She said:
Every week Nigel Farage sets out unrealistic, unworkable and unfunded plans.
You’ve heard the prime minister talk about the politics of grievance that Reform thrives on.
They don’t want to tackle the issues facing the country, they want to foster division.
Key events
Early evening summary
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British jets are ready to “confront” Russian planes violating Nato airspace, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary has told the UN, as she accused Moscow of risking “direct armed confrontation”.
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Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, has told the BBC that further welfare reform “must happen”.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Here is some more response to the Reform UK immigration plan.
From Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future
Threatening to revoke the settled status of millions who already have indefinite leave is morally wrong, beyond the legal and practical chaos it would cause – it undermines the very idea of belonging in this country.
Debating future settlement rules for new arrivals is a legitimate public policy debate. Most of the public agree it is fair that people living here can apply to settle permanently after five years. The uncertainty this proposal creates for people who have already built their lives here – Hongkongers, EU citizens who came before Brexit and others – is unfair and must be resolved with urgency.
The government needs to speed up its own consultations on citizenship reforms to reduce that anxiety. It should immediately make clear that it rejects in principle and practice Reform’s proposals to remove and unsettle the status and rights of people who hold settled status now.
Public attitudes research by Focaldata for British Future finds that 59% of the public, (and 64% of 2024 Labour voters) agree that migrants living in the UK and paying taxes should be eligible to apply for citizenship after five years or less.
From the Labour MP Stella Creasy
Reform’s call to deport ALL people who legally make a life here – paying taxes, forming families, volunteering and even being elected – needs calling out.
Contrary to Farage, ILR doesn’t = criminal. They ARE net contributors to our economy.
An expensive, hateful & stupid plan.
From Colin Yeo, an immigration barrister, in response to a poster on Bluesky saying the plan is impossible
It’s quite do-able from a legal perspective. I don’t think dismissing Reform in this way is wise. Voters need to understand that this stuff can happen if they vote for it – and that it would be morally, socially, culturally, economically disastrous. So they shouldn’t vote for it.
It’s not a gimmick. It’s a repudiation of 75 years of integration. It’s a betrayal of the Windrush generation. It’s unfair and it’s un-British.
Mass deportation is possible. It’s important to understand what it would really involve. Both the ideology of racial and national purity that drives it and what carrying it out really means in practice. Camps, barbed wire, goon squads, depossessed people who lose everything they know
From the New Statesman’s Ben Walker
Abolishing indefinite leave to remain makes it personal. Meat to the core who’ve never met an immigrant but uncomfortable to a great many more. V easy for opponents to humanise this. Reform wins the numbers argument, not a human argument.
From the Green MP Carla Denyer
.@Nigel_Farage Why don’t you come to Bristol and actually meet some of the people you want to kick out of this country? Care workers, grandparents, volunteers, friends. Valued members of our community. Come and meet the people your cruel policies would tear from their neighbours
From the SNP’s Pete Wishart
There’s a real sense that Farage has grossly overreached with that nasty press conference. He’ll be coming for members of our community, friends, colleagues, people who are settled here, and when it gets personal he will lose. This might be our best chance to halt his progress.
Ed Davey rejects BBC’s political editor’s claim Lib Dems have smeared corporation with ‘falsehood’ about its Reform coverage
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has dismissed a claim from the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason, that his party has been spreading a “falsehood” about its journalism.
The Lib Dems have launched a campaign saying the BBC is giving too much coverage to Reform UK, and as part of that they have accused the corporation of publishing reports that read like “cut and paste” versions of Reform UK press releases.
In an interview with Davey, Mason repeatedly put it to him that this was a “falsehood” and “straightforwardly not true”.
Davey said that the allegation did not refer to any of Mason’s reports. He claimed that it was aimed at reporting on the BBC’s website, which he said did not involve enough “scrutiny” of Nigel Farage’s policy.
Asked if he stood by the “cut and paste” allegation, he said he did. He went on:
I do think we’ve seen some poor practise in parts of the BBC.
We’re seeing some improvements, and long it may continue because the BBC has a really important role.
That’s one of the reasons why Liberal Democrats have championed the BBC and when it’s not performing that role it’s not unreasonable is it for people to call it out.
Davey claims Reform UK’s migration plans would led to ‘higher taxes and more red tape’
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has claimed that Reform UK’s immigration plans would lead to higher costs for taxpayers.
In an interview with the BBC, he said:
Yet again, [Nigel Farage] wants more red tape and high cost for taxpayers. Like Brexit, that’s meant higher taxes and more red tape.
This proposal would need more officials. It would be a huge cost in Home Office bureaucracy having to be paid for by taxpayers. So let’s expose him for that.
Let’s also say he’s talking about people who are fully integrated. If you get indefinite leave to remain, you might have been here for years, you might have come from Canada, from Australia, you might have come from India, lots of different places you might have come from and you’ve thought that you and your family … can stay here and work and contribute and Nigel Farage is saying no, let’s have more regulation, let’s have more taxes and let’s uproot people.
These are from James MacCleary, the Lib Dem MP who presented the UK-EU reset motion to the conference this morning. (See 11.01am.)
I am pushing for the Govt to be much more ambitious in rebuilding our links with the EU by calling for:
A bespoke UK–EU Customs Union by 2030
A Youth Mobility Scheme
A new Rearmament Bank with the EU
A new Security and Defence Partnership
A Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement
And finally aligning with EU regulations to remove red tape and maintain our high standards in areas like chemicals, aviation and medicine.
It is a shame the Govt has failed to show real ambition to fix our relationship with the EU – as it continues to refuse a Customs Union
There has been no progress on an agreement for UK touring artists.
They failed to agree mutual recognition of qualifications.
No progress on UK association with the European Defence Agency.
And no clarity about the EU’s Entry/Exit Scheme and the disruption it could cause.
I believe that strengthening our economic ties with Europe will not only boost growth at home but also insulate us from Trump’s irrational trade war.
This policy builds upon our previous work and it the first part of our four–stage approach to rebuilding our relationship
Reform UK’s migration plan ‘abhorrent beyond words’, says Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nursing says that thousands of migrant nurses would lose their jobs under Reform UK’s plan to end indefinite leave to remain and that this would be abhorrent. Nicola Ranger, its general secretary and chief executive, said:
Threatening to sack thousands of migrant nursing staff is abhorrent beyond words. These are people who have come to the UK to care for patients and become part of our communities. They deserve so much better than this.
The policy of retrospectively removing people’s rights in this way would be unprecedented, leaving migrant nursing staff unable to work or access welfare, despite having paid tax. It shows neither compassion nor an understanding of the fundamental role our brilliant migrant nursing staff play in health and care. Without them, services would simply cease to function.
As the largest nursing union, we are deeply concerned by the increasingly hostile rhetoric shown towards migrants. We urge all political parties to end this race to the bottom and instead acknowledge and celebrate the contribution of those who come to the UK from overseas.
Ed Davey says faith is part of his life, and sometimes he prays before taking difficult, personal decisions
Here are some more developments from the Lib Dem conference.
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Members have approved Leading the Way, a 45-page policy review paper, including approving amendemnts saying that ending “deep poverty within a decade” and closing regional gaps “in pay, productivity, health and connectivity” should be goals for the party.
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Members have voted for a motion saying the government should do more to protect the rights of Hong Kongers threatened by China, including blocking the application for the Chinese “mega embassy” in London, appointing a Home Office tsar “for the protection of pro-democracy activists” and suspending further ministerial visits to China until bounties aimed at Hong Kongers living in the UK are lifted.
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Members have approved plans to end “fleecehold”. The propsals include “establishing rights for homebuyers, to ensure there is no way for developers or building insurers to avoid accountability for rectifying defects”.
Faith has always been part of my life, and while it’s been challenged at times – when I lost my mum it was quite challenging for my faith, I’ll be very honest with you, I was disappointed in the support we had from the church – but over time my faith has definitely been part of who I am and it’s certainly a part of who my family is.
And although it doesn’t determine my policy outlook, you won’t be surprised to hear that I go to quite a liberal church.
And as an Anglican, a member of the Church of England, sometimes I do think that when I have difficult personal decisions to make, I do like to pray.
Zia Yusuf says Reform UK government would negotiate with Brussels on cutting benefits for EU nationals in UK
Steven Swinford, political editor of the Times, says he thinks there was some confusing messaging at the Reform UK press conference this morning.
Confused messaging around Nigel Farage migration crackdown
Farage said explicitly that under a Reform government ‘welfare will be for UK citizens only, not foreign nationals’
But Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s head of policy, subsequently clarified that the policy will not apply to 4.12million EU citizens with settled status, who account for 9.7% of Universal Credit claimants
He said that a Reform government would open negotiations with the EU about welfare claims by those with settled status
As my colleague @Smyth_Chris points out, that means the policy is limited to non-EU migrants with indefinite leave to remain, who account for just 2.7% of Universal Credit claimants
That means there are likely to be significant questions about how much the policy will actually save
In response, Zia Yusuf, the Reform head of policy, insists that the party would be able to stop EU nationals getting benefits.
Respectfully, no confusion at all @Steven_Swinford.
Your own tweet is self contradictory.
Those on EU settled status will not be have it withdrawn, but a Reform government will stop them accessing welfare in this country. That’s what renegotiating means.
British people will no longer fund a food bank for the world.
Also, your savings claim is inaccurate anyway. The 2.7% is the figure now, before the Boriswave are added to the claimant register. Run that calculation for 5 years time if all the Boriswave get ILR!
At the press conference earlier today Yusuf talked about a renegotiation with the EU. (See 11.44am.)
(As Britain discovered post-2016, negotiations with the EU don’t always pan out quite the way Brexiters predict.)
Lib Dems call for ‘doomscroll ban’ to limit time under-18s can be exposed to TikTok-style content to 2 hours
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrats’ science spokesperson, has called for smoking-style health warnings on social media apps used by children. She told the conference:
If we are going to take on this multi billion pound industry we need to be brave. We have long recognised that where online content poses a threat to public health, we need to know. That’s why I’m calling today for addictive social media apps to come with mandatory health warnings for under-18s.
Just like cigarettes or alcohol, these addictive products carry well-documented risks, especially for young people. The evidence is clear that excessive use of these apps exposes children to mental health issues, to anxiety, sleep disruption and to real harm to attention spans. Don’t they deserve to know that?
Clear labelling spelling out those health risks wouldn’t stop young people engaging with social media. It wouldn’t stop them engaging with their community, or connecting with friends online. But it would ensure they go into the experience with their eyes open to the risks – and with enough information to make a change.
When we pick up a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of wine, we expect to be told about the harm those products will pose to our health. So why is social media, the key driver of a crisis in young people’s mental health, any different?
She also called for a two-hour limit to be placed on the amount of time people under the age of 18 can be exposed to “TikTok-style video content”. She said:
Peter Kyle, until recently the Science Secretary, has mooted time caps or curfews on addictive social apps – but moves on to another department leaving behind a record of failure.
The government must finally deliver and introduce a doomscroll ban, that caps the amount of time children can spend on these addictive apps.
Russia risking ‘direct armed confrontation’ with Nato, warns Cooper
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has told the UN that British jets are ready to “confront” Russian planes violating Nato airspace. Jakub Krupa has the full quotes on his Europe live blog.
SNP says Reform UK’s plans for mass deportations ‘desperate and despicable’
The SNP has described Reform UK’s plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain as despicable. In a statement, Pete Wishart, the party’s deputy leader at Westminster, said:
Nigel Farage’s latest plan for mass deportations is one more desperate and despicable attempt to blame migrants for the economic state of broken Britain. Farage’s plans would threaten the collapse of our NHS and would crash the economy all over again.
Instead of attacking migrants who staff our NHS, contribute to our economy and strengthen our society – the truth that Westminster politicians refuse to face is that Brexit broke Britain and Farage was the key architect of that disaster.
It is shameful that instead of calling out Farage, the Labour Party and Keir Starmer are determined to follow him. They followed Farage on Brexit and they are now following him on immigration.
Reeves claims second runway at Gatwick will bring down holiday costs
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has suggested that having a second runway at Gatwick could lead to cheaper holidays.
On a visit there this morning, she told journalists:
Today, this Government are backing a second runway here at Gatwick. That’s in addition to our commitments to a third runway at Heathrow, small modular reactors and a new nuclear power station in Suffolk, backing energy projects and transport projects right around the country.
This extra runway at Gatwick will mean that people going on holiday will have a greater choice of destinations, it will mean lower costs for a family holiday.
And it will also mean more good jobs paying decent wages through this injection of cash into our economy.
Here is our story on the announcement by Nadeem Badshah and Jasper Jolly.
SNP appoints Callum McCaig as its 4th chief executive in 3 years
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
The Scottish National party has appointed a former MP and special adviser to Nicola Sturgeon as its new chief executive, after the incumbent quit on health grounds.
Callum McCaig, the former MP for Aberdeen South and a former leader of Aberdeen council, will become its fourth chief executive in three years after the most turbulent period in the party’s history.
The SNP announced on Sunday he had taken over after Carol Beattie, a former Stirling council leader, resigned “due to personal health reasons”. She was appointed in October 2024 after Murray Foote, a former editor of the Daily Record, quit as chief executive in a row over transparency on its membership figures after 14 months in the post.
McCaig faces the significant challenge of preparing the SNP for what is likely to be a bruising Holyrood election contest, with Scottish Labour facing the increasingly difficult task of ending the SNP’s nearly 20-year-long domination of Scottish politics.
After being humiliated by Labour in the 2024 general election, losing 38 of its 48 Westminster seats, in June the SNP was again surprisingly beaten by Labour for the Holyrood seat of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in a byelection the polls showed and pundits assumed would be a straightforward win for the SNP.
Alongside the impending trial of Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon’s ex-husband, for alleged embezzlement during his 22-year tenure as SNP chief executive, the party has seen a steep fall in its membership, down from 126,000 at its peak to 56,000, and much dicier finances.
Its 2024 accounts showed a £455,000 deficit, driven largely by election costs, but also falling revenues. General election years are traditionally periods when party coffers swell with donations: in 2024 its total income fell to £4.5m from £4.7m in the previous year.
In the run-up to Murrell’s arrest in April 2023, the party was riven by bitter factional disputes over transparency and financial accountability, with treasurers and members of its finance committee quitting, which in part fueled the police investigation which led to Murrell’s arrest. The SNP’s auditors, Johnson Carmichael, also quit after more than a decade in the role.
Swinney has been credited with restoring stability to the party’s management and governance, but the challenge of preparing for the 2026 Holyrood elections remains significant. The SNP’s once-feared electoral machine now appears out-dated and underpowered.
Lib Dems call for British laws to be ‘Trump-proofed’ to stop ministers lobbying on behalf of foreign governments
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.
The Liberal Democrats have called for new measures to stop government ministers lobbying on behalf of foreign powers in yet another attack on Nigel Farage and Reform at the party’s conference in Bournemouth.
It came in a speech by Calum Miller, the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, who billed as a way of “Trump-proofing” the UK. Attacks on the US president have been another repeated refrain at the gathering.
Miller, who was a senior civil servant before entering politics, cited the example of Whitehall officials pushing golf bosses for the 2028 Open championship to take place at the Trump-owned Turnberry course, saying the claims needed to be investigated.
But he also took aim at Farage, saying:
We must Trump-proof our politics – especially in light of people like Farage, already measuring the curtains in No 10, who care more about what that office could do for them, than what it can do for this country.
The Lib Dems have previously accused Farage of prioritising Trump’s interests over those of the UK, such as an appearance earlier this month before a congressional hearing on censorship at which the Reform UK agreed with Republican members about what he called the “awful authoritarian” situation for free speech in the UK.
The Lib Dems have called Farage a “plastic patriot”, to the extent of producing a Farage-type Lego figure labelled as such as a gift to journalists attending the conference.
Briefings by party officials have repeatedly noted what the party says is an increasing amount of direct competition between the Lib Dems and Reform in council byelections, especially in the north of England, as support for Labour and the Conservatives drops away.
Tories claim Reform’s indefinite leave to remain plans ‘half-baked and unworkable’ version of their own
The Conservatives have described Reform UK’s plan to get rid of indefinite leave to remain as a “half-baked and unworkable” version of their own policies in this area.
In a statement, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said:
Reform UK are once again copying Conservative ideas, but in a way that is half-baked and unworkable. They lift our policies but strip away the detail that makes them enforceable. Mass low-skill migration carries real fiscal costs – in housing, welfare, and public services – which is why Britain needs a system that rewards contribution and stops abuse …
The Conservatives have already tabled detailed amendments in parliament to reform indefinite leave to remain.
We will double the residency requirement for indefinite leave to remain to 10 years, make ILR conditional on genuine economic contribution, block ILR for anyone with a criminal record, ensure there is no access to benefits pre-ILR. And we will go further, we will end automatic citizenship routes, impose a hard, legally binding cap on annual legal migration set by parliament, and ensure temporary work visas are not renewed if people are unemployed or in low-paid work.