Reform UK would tax employers hiring foreign workers
Reform UK would introduce an ‘employers’ migrant labour levy’, making it more expensive to hire workers from overseas.
Robert Jenrick, the party’s economic spokesman, said it would also cut employers’ national insurance for British workers back to 13.8%, but charge the current 15% rate for foreign workers, essentially creating a two-tier employment tax.
At a press conference on Monday, Jenrick promised to put “British workers first, migrants second”.
“For more than 20 years now, we’ve had British workers coming second – undercut by cheap migrant labour, which drives down wages and our people’s quality of life,” he said.
Reform UK on employment
“According to the government’s own figures, the millions of low-skilled migrants that have been brought into our country and they have cost us hundreds of billions of pounds.
“Not to mention the pressure they place on GP surgeries, on our schools, housing, on the roads. Well, under a Reform government, those days are going to come to an end.”
The employers’ migrant labour levy would affect businesses taking on lower-skilled and low-earning migrants worse than those recruiting their more highly skilled foreign nationals.
This could, Jenrick said, be set at £3,750 per year for a full-time foreign worker on the national living wage – an annual salary of nearly £25,000.
Higher earners from abroad would cost less, with those earning £50,000 attracting an annual levy of £1,500, and just £500 for those earning £100,000 or more.
However, he said specifying the exact rates would be “irresponsible” so far from a general election, adding that a reform government would consult with businesses on the measures.
The levy would raise over £11 billion, according to Reform, funding the cut in employers’ NICs for British workers. Jenrick said the levy would include migrant workers with EU settled status.
He said: “Under Reform, because of this levy, businesses will have to take responsibility for the costs and benefits their hiring decisions have on everyone else.”
He added: “The experiment of letting in millions of low-wage migrants, as millions of Brits languish on benefits, has failed catastrophically. Reform will end it.”
Labour described the policy as Reform’s “latest half-baked plan” that would leave British businesses and British people worse off. A spokesperson said: “Their proposals threaten to hike bills and leave working families paying the price.”
Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Reform was “throwing out a litany of policies in the hope something sticks”.
He said: “Announcing tens of billions in entirely uncosted promises is not serious. It’s a symptom of a party that deals only in gimmicks and headlines, with no real plan for government.”
In 2024, Reform UK proposed a 20% employers’ NIC on foreign workers, to cure the UK’s “deadly addiction” to cheap overseas labour.
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