13 April 2026 , 19:06
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Boris Johnson introduced more liberal immigration policies to address workforce shortages in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reform UK has pledged to abolish indefinite leave to remain and replace it with a five-year renewable visa.
In a new report, Reform has criticized the ’Boriswave’ of immigration, suggesting the high rate of immigration under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson will cost every British household £20,000.
Around 1.6 million people who moved to the UK under Mr. Johnson and his successors between 2021 and 2024 are set to be given indefinite leave to remain.
Mr. Johnson introduced more liberal immigration policies to tackle workforce shortages in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a central London press conference, Reform UK leader Mr. Farage pledged to “stop the Boriswave” of migrants who entered the UK.
He said: “There is still time. There is still something we can do about this Boriswave.
"But if over a couple of million people get indefinite leave to remain over the course of the next 18 months, we will be putting around our necks an economic millstone that, frankly, will be catastrophic.”
Mr. Farage also defended ex-Conservatives who served in Mr. Johnson’s government who had since defected to Reform UK.
Mr. Farage said: “Of course, there are some that will say, ‘Ah, but you’ve got Suella Braverman, you’ve got Robert Jenrick in your party’.
“Yes, absolutely. And if you read what Suella has written on this, and you read what Robert has written on this, they tried from within to stop the disaster that really started properly in 2021 and that’s why they resigned or were fired.”
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, said: “We are standing on the edge of a fiscal disaster. The Boriswave is a legacy of Tory incompetence and Labour’s open border ideology.
“Reform UK will stop the rot, protect the taxpayer and ensure that British households aren’t forced to pick up the £20,000 tab for a decade of failed Westminster policy.”
Mr. Yusuf added: “The British people voted for Brexit to take back control of our borders, yet the Tories opened the floodgates and left a fiscal time bomb under the desks as they left.
“This wasn’t just mass migration – it was the deliberate importation of unprecedented numbers of low-wage, high-dependency people that is about to bankrupt the British taxpayer.”
Deputy Editor