Reform UK would introduce an ‘employer immigration tax’ to cure the UK’s ‘deadly addiction’ to cheap overseas labour, the party’s leader Richard Tice has announced.
A Reform government would require most employers to pay a 20% rate of national insurance when employing foreign workers, compared with 13.8% for British nationals.
Health and social care workers would be exempt, as would employers with five or fewer staff.
Speaking in London today, Tice said: “The British economy, our great economy, has a deadly, deadly addiction. That’s the harsh truth. It’s the drug of cheap overseas labour. And this drug is being pushed on every street corner by the Labour Party and by the Tories.
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“They believe that this drug, this addiction, is good for the British economy. Let me tell you today, it’s not. What we need is a cure to this addiction, and the cure is an employer immigration tax.”
He said that “smart” immigration – highly qualified, highly skilled – can be a great thing, but it comes at a price.
“There’s no cost to big business for employing cheap, low-skilled overseas labour,” said Tice, no cost for things like training, infrastructure, housing and health, which is borne by the taxpayer.
He added that British wages were depressed by mass immigration. “That’s simply unfair,” he said, particularly for young people leaving school and university.
He explained that, because of mass immigration in the decade leading up to the Brexit referendum, the UK had zero growth in real wages. This compared with 2.8% per year during the 1990s when immigration was significantly lower.
“We need to incentivise business to say, actually, if you want to employ people from overseas, that’s fine, but you’ve got to pay a price for it,” said Tice.
Tice said the employer immigration tax, which would apply to non-British passport holders, could raise more than £20bn over the course of a Parliament – depending on how quickly employers adjust their recruitment processes – and would incentivise business to invest in young British workers.
If you want to employ people from overseas, that’s fine, but you’ve got to pay a price for it” – Richard Tice, Reform UK leader
He said he knows the “lefties will whinge, whine and bleat” and say it is discriminatory, but his response to them would be to “grow up”.
“I think the vast majority of ordinary, decent British workers are sick of this pathetic identity politics, that is designed purely to smear and suppress debate and discussion.
“Some people don’t ever want to talk about immigration, but I want to talk about how we get this country growing again and how we get young British workers to have motivation, get on the housing ladder – it’s not fair.”
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