Nigel Farage predicts that Express readers will begin switching to Reform UK

Nigel Farage has predicted that Daily Express readers will begin switching their support to Reform UK over the coming weeks, as his party unveiled a major new policy to crackdown on legal immigration.

Reform UK has warned that cheap legal immigration is an addictive drug being “pushed on every street corner” by both the Labour Party and the Conservatives.

In an incendiary campaign intervention yesterday, Richard Tice pledged a new “cure to this addiction”, outlining his party’s latest pledge to crack down on legal immigration.

Mr Tice is calling for an “employer immigration tax”, which would hike employers’ National Insurance contributions as a way of deterring big companies from relying on mass immigration, and which disincentivises domestic wage growth.

At a press conference in central London, the Reform UK leader argued that there is presently “no cost to big business from employing cheap, low-skilled overseas labour”.

“There's no cost for health. There's no cost for transport. The list goes on. So they're getting away without paying for overseas labour, and that cost is borne by the British taxpayer.”

Explaining his latest policy offering, Mr Tice said that businesses with more than five employees would have to pay 20 percent National Insurance contributions for each member of staff without a British passport, up from the current 13.8 percent.

Foreign health and care workers, vital to the NHS, would also be exempt from the tax.

As well as hoping to provide a major incentive for companies to train British workers, Reform UK also claimed the policy would raise up to £20billion in one electoral cycle from firms that insist on retaining overseas staff.

He acknowledged that while Reform UK is typically a party of low taxes, this counterintuitive policy is aimed at increasing fairness in the labour market.

Mr Tice pointed to the five million Britons already on out-of-work benefits, who would be tempted back into the labour force with the resulting higher salary offerings.

In a swipe at both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, the Reform UK leader described both main parties as “two sides of the same socialist coin”, who are “addicted to this drug” of low-skilled cheap immigration.

He championed his team as the one party “on the side of British workers”, while the opposition represented the interests of globalists and big multinational corporations.

Mr Tice was joined at the major press conference by Nigel Farage, whose decision to step back from his GB News career in order to campaign in the election is already providing much-needed momentum for Reform UK.

Mr Farage welcomed the employer immigration tax policy as a “bold innovative policy”, and batted away an accusation that the policy would amount to a ‘Tandoori Tax’, which would harm Indian and Turkish takeaways.

He argued the policy would lead to an increase in wages for waiters and chefs, further encouraging Britons to take up what are currently low-paid jobs.

Mr Farage also told the Express that Reform UK will win seats at the election, despite the difficulties of the electoral system.

Asked why Reform UK is announcing policies when they’re unlikely to be involved in the next government, Mr Farage claimed that the election result is a foregone conclusion and Keir Starmer is heading for Downing Street.

The party’s honorary president insisted that while this doesn’t fill them with joy, it gives Reform UK the opportunity to become the main opposition after the election.

He set out the party’s six-year game plan, arguing: “I put it to you, that the Conservatives will be in opposition but they won’t be the opposition”.

“They can’t be the opposition - they don’t agree on anything! The party is completely split, it serves no real purpose of any kind!

“In opposition, they’ll be even worse… what we want to do is get millions of votes in this election.”

He predicted that, in a fortnight, Express readers will realise that the Conservatives can’t win, and agree with Reform UK’s platform, freeing them up to back the party in the knowledge that their vote won’t affect the next occupant of Downing Street.

Mr Farage made the bold prediction: “I believe we are going to win seats. Maybe not a huge number, but we are going to win seats.

“We intend to be the voice of opposition to a Labour Government over the course of the next five years.”

Writing for this paper, Mr Farage argues that the general election is “the immigration election”, after 25 years of lies from the Tories and Labour.

He says that the 10 million population increase since 1997 has been a “catastrophe” for Britain, leading to repressed wages, a housing crisis, record NHS waiting lists and huge pressure on public services.

Mr Farage writes: “There is hope. For the first time in a generation, there will be a real choice at the ballot box”.

“On July 4th Reform will field candidates across Britain. The British public will be able to vote for a party that has the leadership and courage to stop mass immigration and put our country first.”