‘You’ve got to be careful’: Martin Daubney takes issue with human rights lawyer's language as he brands Nigel Farage plan ‘fascist’

Speaking to the People's Channel after his announcement, the Reform UK leader warned that the current system for legal migrants and their dependants will "bankrupt" Britain.

Mr Farage stated: "Nearly a million people over the course of the next few years will qualify for indefinite leave to remain, they are part of the Boriswave. Once they get that status, they can bring dependants.

"Once they get that status, they can access fully all the welfare benefits in this country. Already, one in six on Universal Credit are foreign born people. This is going to bankrupt us."

Criticising the Reform policy, Mr Khan told GB News: "I think it's an appalling policy, it's unworkable and it's never going to be implemented. I think it's an awful, awful idea.

"Any questions put to Nigel Farage, you could just tell he has no idea of any of the detail beyond what he had drafted that he would say. I think it's just misleading people by saying, 'fine, we'll get rid of indefinite leave to remain but that was a stepping stone to citizenship'."

He added: "So basically he's not saying we won't give people citizenship, he's saying we'll get rid of this intermediate stage, and people can go and directly apply for of citizenship."

Martin pressed Mr Khan on his earlier verdict on the plan, asking why he had deemed Reform's crackdown "frighteningly racist".

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Mr Khan argued: "I think the main reason was the second proposal, which is even more scary, and I think that is fascist, but we will take citizenship away from people.

"If you were in Australia and the under the law you uprooted your life from Britain, you took your family there, you invested in Australia, you were there for years and then some far-right Government comes in and says 'we're getting rid of that, all the foreigners need to leave, we don't care what status you have', I think that is fascist, that's wrong."

Interjecting the Human Rights Lawyer, Martin warned: "Hang on, you can't just throw words around like fascist. Controlling borders isn't fascism. You've got to be very careful bandying words around like that, because they simply cease to have any meaning.

"Far-right, fascist, racist, Islamophobic, Xenophobic, it pings off the armour. Engage with the truth. We can't afford the benefits bill, and we should be putting British workers first. In actual fact, the vast majority of the electorate disagree with you."

Mr Khan hit back at Martin: "I am very careful about the words I use, and I do use it advisedly and unreservedly this word. People who have earned the right to indefinitely leave to remain have that right legally.

"If another Government comes in and reverses that and says you have to now uproot your lives and leave the UK, or you're going back to a temporary visa, I think that is authoritarian, I think that is fascist. I just don't understand how you can do that."

In disagreement with Mr Khan, Martin then highlighted: "If presumably this would be in Nigel Farage's manifesto pledge, people can or can't vote for it. If people voted for it and it became the democratic rule of the land and Nigel Farage were to impose it, that's the opposite of fascism, it's democracy.

"You're calling people fascists who you disagree with, and I'm asking you to defend that term, it's idiotic."

Mr Khan concluded: "If someone's coming in and being cruel or nasty or awful, then we have to call that out, even if they were voted in. Just because you vote for someone or the majority votes for someone, doesn't mean they can't be wrong."