Shocking new figures released this week show that more than 1.26 million migrants – people who are citizens of another country – are claiming Universal Credit in Britain.
The cost of this adds up to a staggering £12billion a year – every penny of which has to be funded by hard-working taxpayers.
Even more concerning is that the majority of these foreign citizens claiming Universal Credit are actually unemployed and not working at all.
The Labour Government did not even want to release these figures. It was only after relentless pressure from the Conservatives that they were finally forced to. They still haven’t provided the nationality breakdown, which we are continuing to push for.
It is fundamentally unfair to expect hard-working British taxpayers to subsidise those who have come here and have likely not paid into the system. This is partly an economic case – we just can’t afford it. It is also a moral case – it is simply wrong for people to take out of the system before they have meaningfully contributed to it.
There is zero chance that Labour will tackle immigration or welfare.
When we Conservatives proposed measures to tighten up, Labour voted against them. They voted against our plans for a hard and low annual cap on legal migration.
Labour voted against our plan to repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration matters. Labour voted against our plan to remove every single foreign criminal.
Labour voted against our plan to ensure anyone coming to the UK in the future could not claim any benefits at all until they have shown they have paid in meaningfully over a minimum ten-year period. And Labour voted against our plan to ensure that only people who make an economic contribution can ever stay in the UK permanently.
An alarming detail is missing about more than one million migrants claiming benefits. Why? - Chris Philp
Kemi Badenoch and Shadow Welfare Secretary Helen Whately recently went further and announced plans to ensure that no non-British Citizen can ever claim PIP benefits or the welfare component of Universal Credit, unless entitled under a specific reciprocal treaty that we have chosen to sign.
And when it came to wider welfare reform, Keir Starmer had to recently completely gut his Bill to the point where it actually cost more money because he is too weak to stand up to the demands of his radical left-wing MPs.
Reform does not have any answers on this issue either. Nigel Farage wants hard-working British taxpayers to pay for others to have more children by lifting the two-child benefit cap. Why should taxpayers who perhaps can’t afford to have more than two children themselves pay for others to have four, five, six or more? Nigel has got this one badly wrong.
The simple truth is this. The era of mass low-skilled, low-wage migration has to end. Making taxpayers subsidise recent arrivals who have not themselves contributed is unfair, it is unaffordable, and it has to end.
Our immigration system must be completely overhauled. Businesses must train British workers and wean themselves off cheap, benefit-dependent overseas labour.
The Conservatives have bold new immigration plans to ensure that only a very small group of highly skilled migrants are able to come here, and we will not hesitate to remove people who become a burden on the UK taxpayer.
Our duty is to make our system work for the British people first and foremost.