Reform UK’s plan to ‘prioritise British’ workers an affront to us all

Jenrick plans to end unemployment through punishment (Photo: uk_parliament/Flickr)

Reform UK is after your house, your benefits and your job.

Reform announced it would evict foreign nationals from social housing, which few are entitled to, and build homes for young, married British couples.

Richard Tice, Reform UK deputy leader, bragged that his career in property development makes him perfect to build 50,000 affordable homes reserved for people born in Britain.

Tice said on Sunday, “I have spent my entire career in property development, as a private citizen I have led companies which delivered thousands of new homes.

“In government I will break down the barriers to getting generation rent onto the housing ladder.”

According to the English Housing Survey just over 10 percent of social housing is occupied by people born abroad. Many of these people have worked in Britain for decades. Reform UK wants to put them on the streets.

And when they’ve taken your home, Reform UK wants to make you work for nothing.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick is planning to compel people on unemployment benefits for more than a year to work for 20 hours a week. Jenrick wants them to work for nothing, cleaning up streets and parks, working with children and staffing libraries.

Reform UK reckons this scheme could involve up to 300,000 people who have claimed Universal Credit for more than 12 months.

Jenrick’s “welfare to work” scheme is not just an attack on the unemployed—it is an attack on those with jobs. He wants people with little training and no experience to do the jobs of council workers, educators and librarians for no wages.

The plan demands that cash‑strapped local councils provide necessary training and checks and supervise workers from an allocation of £3,200 a year per claimant.

Jenrick’s plan states, “Requiring claimants to work will make long-term welfare dependence less attractive as a lifestyle option.”

And his plan is an insult to public sector workers. Filling potholes, working in school clubs and supporting those in sheltered accommodation is skilled work which deserves decent pay, not a punishment for being unemployed.

There are thousands of people who would like to work. But they are shut out of the workplace due to inaccessibility, unpaid caring responsibilities, unaffordable childcare and transport costs. Reform UK offers them nothing.