Zia Yusuf: The looming Boriswave is a disaster for the UK - but Reform will save Britain

Britain stands on the brink of fiscal disaster. The biggest catastrophe the Tories unleashed on Britain is yet to explode. The "Boriswave" - the millions of unskilled, non-EU migrants they imported - will cost the taxpayer at least £234bn, according to the Centre for Policy Studies.

Half the Boriswave migrants do not work, and never will. At least 800,000 of them will shortly qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which gives them lifetime access to our welfare state. This is a scam on the British people perpetrated by the Tory party. Reform will avert this crisis. We will abolish ILR altogether - including rescinding it retrospectively - and close all loopholes to ensure only UK citizens receive welfare or social housing.

Britain stands at a crossroads. Our nation is proud, resourceful, and resilient, but we have been suffocated by a political class that continues to betray the British people. For too long, the Tories and Labour have rolled out the red carpet for mass unskilled immigration, turning Britain into a food bank for the world.

Broken system

Britain is going broke. Last year, the British taxpayer spent £266bn on welfare. £52bn of that went on Universal Credit. Of that, almost £9bn went to foreign nationals. One in six people on Universal Credit is a foreign national. The Tories and Labour have turned Britain into a food bank for the world, at the expense of our own people.

This is about to become catastrophic. Between 2026 and 2030, thanks to the Boriswave, 800,000 new migrants are estimated to get ILR. About half of all of them will never work, ever. And yet, every single one of them will have full access to our bloated welfare state for life.

The Boriswave is not made up of scientists, entrepreneurs, and doctors. Sixty per cent of the Boriswave are low-skilled immigrants who, once they've gained ILR, will bring further family members and dependants along with them.

Government cannot be trusted

For example, in 2023, the UK Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) estimated they would issue 6,000 social care visas. The real number ended up being 348,000 - a staggering 58 times the government estimate. Remarkably, 55 per cent of those were dependants.

Overall, the Boriswave allowed 3.8 million new people into the country on long term visas (96 per cent to non-EU nationals), of which two million are on the path to ILR. The Boriswave will start to be eligible for ILR from Jan 1 2026. Estimates suggest that at least 800,000 of these individuals will be granted ILR under current rules at a total lifetime cost to the British taxpayer (likely underestimated) of £234bn. That's four times our entire defence budget, double our education budget, and 12 times our Police budget.

Operation Restoring Justice

Our solution to this problem is to abolish ILR completely. That means no new awards and those who currently hold it will have it rescinded. We will replace it with a five-year renewable work visa, with a vastly higher qualifying salary, much reduced ability to bring dependents and a much higher required standard of English. Crucially, this visa will give holders no access to welfare.

These changes will lead to hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK, which will be done on a staggered and orderly basis to allow businesses to train British workers to replace them. Many of those who will lose their leave to remain are entirely dependent on the welfare state and will leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits. Those that don't will be subject to immigration enforcement as part of our mass deportation programme - Operation Restoring Justice.

Business now on notice

We will also increase the qualifying period to become a UK citizen to seven years. A British passport is a privilege, and will no longer be given away cheaply.

We will introduce an Acute Skills Shortage Visa (ASSV), to be issued in extremely limited numbers, and only when there is clear evidence of acute shortages in national-critical roles. Each ASSV will carry a one-for-one training guarantee: for every visa issued, the sponsoring employer must fund, via a levy, a commensurate training programme to produce a UK worker for that occupation, ensuring that temporary reliance on overseas labour directly builds long-term domestic capacity.

We are putting business on notice: the era of cheap foreign labour is over. We will end bogus sponsors and the ridiculously low salary thresholds. There are millions of Brits currently not in work, it's time we got them to work and stopped our young people from having to compete with infinite migrants.

The result of these changes by a Reform government will be savings to the UK taxpayer well in excess of £230bn. UK welfare will be accessible only to UK citizens. British workers will enjoy priority access to the UK job market. Our borders will be secure. We will once again be a sovereign nation.

That's what Prime Minister Nigel Farage will deliver. He will stop the Boriswave. He will put British people first. He will unleash the full potential of our great nation.