In a severe escalation of hostile environment policies, Reform UK has unveiled a platform that directly targets the basic human rights of EU nationals living and working in the United Kingdom. Announced by Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick, the party's new platform includes a punitive "migrants labour levy" and a policy to evict all non-UK nationals from social housing—proposals that advocates warn will tear families apart and devastate vulnerable communities.

The proposed "migrants labour levy" functions as a direct penalty on employers who hire non-UK staff, raising National Insurance contributions and introducing an annual fee. For a worker earning the national living wage, this surcharge could reach £3,750—a massive 15% tax penalty on working-class employment. Jenrick made it clear that no compassion or consideration would be granted to EU nationals who have spent decades building lives, careers, and families in the UK. His message to those who might lose their livelihoods under this policy was blunt: leave the country.

This aggressive stance directly threatens the legal protections of those holding settled status, which was guaranteed under the UK’s Brexit withdrawal agreement. These individuals currently hold the permanent right to work, live, access social security, and collect pensions. By seeking to strip these rights and evict overseas nationals from social housing, Reform UK is risking a diplomatic crisis. The European Union would likely retaliate by penalizing UK citizens living abroad in Europe or erecting harsh trade barriers that would hurt working people on both sides of the Channel.

Rights groups have quickly pointed out the hypocrisy of these new measures, noting they represent a complete betrayal of the promises made during the 2016 Brexit referendum. At the time, Leave campaigners—including Nigel Farage himself—assured the public that EU citizens' rights would be fully respected and that pushing people out of their homes would be "quite unreasonable."

Daniel Sohege of the3million, an advocacy organization defending EU citizens' rights, condemned the political establishment’s shifting promises. "For the last decade, EU citizens have faced uncertainty and fear about our future in the UK," Sohege stated. "We were told before the Brexit referendum that our rights would be respected. We were told when the withdrawal agreement was signed that our rights would be protected. Successive governments have failed to keep those promises. Now we are being told that in a couple of years' time a potential Reform government could rip up our rights entirely."