Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has vowed to take steps to mitigate the financial impacts of the so-called “Boriswave” of post-Brexit migrants and to hold a national inquiry into those responsible for importing millions of foreigners into the country against the repeatedly expressed wishes of the British people.
A report this week from the leading opposition party has claimed that the cost of around 1.6 million migrants who arrived in Britain under former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Tory successors between 2020 and 2024 will cost every British family £20,000 for the pleasure, or £622.5 billion in real terms by 2085, GB News reported.
The money, which would go in large part to funding socialised healthcare and welfare handouts to migrants and to fund infrastructure expansions, would pay for Britain’s entire defence budget ten times over, or three years of the National Health Service (NHS).
Reform noted that many of the Boriswave arrivals were not productive members of the economy but rather young or elderly dependents who represent a net drain on the nation’s already-struggling welfare system.
The granting of nearly 4 million long-term visas, 1.6 to 2.2 million of whom will likely qualify to apply for permanent residency in the coming years, came in direct contrast to multiple Conservative Party manifestos, which vowed to reduce migration to the tens of thousands.
Johnson, who ushered in the liberalisation following Brexit, has since claimed that he did so on the advice of central bankers to serve as what’s described as ‘human quantitative easing’ to reduce inflation amid the coronavirus lockdowns he imposed on the UK.
Farage’s Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said that if Reform comes to power, it will conduct an unprecedented national inquiry and force figures like Johnson and former Home Secretary Priti Patel to testify over the decision that led to the record-breaking waves of migrants flooding the country.
“Boris Johnson perpetrated one of the biggest scandals in British history by throwing open our borders to millions who are now set to destroy the country’s finances,” Yusuf said.
“A Reform Government will launch a national inquiry to reveal exactly what happened and how. Boris himself will be forced to testify, under penalty of perjury. He will be held to account.”
Meanwhile, the party has also promised to change the UK immigration system to prevent Boriswave migrants from being granted permanent residency by abolishing the “Indefinite Leave to Remain” system and replacing it with a five-year work visa programme similar to that in the United States.
Reform leader Nigel Farage wrote in The Telegraph that the country must face the “truth about the economic and cultural damage done by uncontrolled immigration.”
“There is still time to do something about this Boriswave. But if a couple of million people get Indefinite Leave to Remain over the next few years, we will be facing a catastrophe,” he warned.
Farage said that while he suspects current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood understands the scale of the problem, the left-wing flank of the Labour Party will never allow the current government to take the necessary steps to save the country from the impending financial disaster.
“The Boriswave marks a low point in 14 years of betrayals by Conservative governments. The reluctance of the Labour government to do anything about it – at the same time as it is working hard to overturn Brexit – confirms that Keir Starmer is not on the side of the British people. These parties have broken Britain, and the public will not forget it. Only Reform UK will stop the Boriswave, secure our borders – and always put the British people first,” Farage said.