Reform UK's plan to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain

What's being proposed

Reform UK has made immigration the centre of its platform. Its current policy package would abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — the status that grants migrants the right to live in the UK permanently — and rescind ILR already awarded. In its place, the party would introduce a five-year renewable visa with higher salary thresholds, mandatory English fluency and stricter "good character" requirements, with no access to benefits for foreign nationals. Alongside this sits "Operation Restoring Justice", a proposed five-year programme to detain and deport people living in the UK illegally, and a new "UK Deportation Command". The party says it would withdraw from or disapply international treaties — including, in effect, parts of the European Convention on Human Rights — that it argues prevent the UK from controlling its borders.

Where it comes from

Reform topped national polls for much of 2025–26 and made sweeping gains in the May 2026 local elections, building its support on a hard-line border-control message. The party frames ILR as a looming cost: it cites a figure of around £234 billion in long-term taxpayer cost from migrants it expects to qualify for settlement, a number that other analysts dispute.

How it would work

ILR abolished and existing grants rescinded, replaced by time-limited visas.
Five-year renewable visas conditional on income, English fluency and conduct.
No recourse to public funds for foreign nationals.
A deportation command and a five-year removals programme.
Withdrawing from or disapplying treaties the party says obstruct border control.

The case for and against

The party argues

Time-limited visas give the state ongoing control over who settles, rather than automatic permanence.
It would cut what the party projects as a very large long-term cost to taxpayers.
Stricter conditions, it says, prioritise higher-skilled migration and integration.
Enforcing removals is, in its view, a matter of upholding existing law and border security.

Critics argue

Rescinding settlement already granted would face major legal challenges and could breach international law and the ECHR.
Independent analysts dispute the headline cost figures the party uses.
Removing settled people and limiting visas could disrupt sectors like the NHS, care and construction that rely on migrant workers.
Critics warn of significant human cost and administrative and financial strain from large-scale detention and removals.

This is an area where claimed costs and savings are heavily contested and hard to verify. We've described the proposal and the main arguments on each side; the figures cited by the party are its own and are disputed by other analysts.

Sources & further reading

Reform UK — the party's published immigration policies.
Migration Observatory (Oxford) — independent migration data and analysis.

General information based on reported proposals; positions and figures may change and are contested. Not legal advice.