Nigel Farage has vowed to ban foreign nationals from social housing and deport those who cannot find private rented accommodation within three months, in a dramatic hardening of anti-immigration rhetoric days before the Makerfield byelection. The Reform UK leader made the pledge in a 6,800-word essay on a new Substack account – a platform he said he launched to avoid his views being “twisted and misrepresented”. The intervention comes as two recent polls in Makerfield suggest Reform is leaking support to its far-right rival Restore Britain, led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, while Labour holds a lead.
“Thanks to the mass migration policies of Conservative and Labour governments, white Brits will become a minority in this country before the end of the century,” Farage wrote in the essay, which mentioned white people more than 60 times. “Anti-whiteness is institutionalised into every aspect of public life,” he claimed. Under Reform plans, foreign nationals would be barred from welfare including social housing. Those unable to secure private rented accommodation after a three-month grace period would “lose their right to remain and be liable for deportation”. Farage said “veterans and long-term local residents will be preferenced for social housing” under his government.
“Nigel Farage vows to deport foreign nationals unable to find private housing, in a bid to win back far-right voters before the Makerfield byelection.”
Farage also confirmed his party would repeal the Equality Act, describing the result of diversity, equity and inclusion policies as a “deeply sinister act of social cleansing”. He wrote: “No recruitment, training or promotion policies that favour one group over another will be lawful: we will restore meritocracy so your skin colour, sex, age or sexuality has no bearing on your job prospects or treatment as an employee.” In healthcare, Reform would “cap the recruitment of foreign doctors” and in education ensure university admissions were “purely meritocratic” to stop white students being “squeezed to make way”.
Although he made no mention of Restore Britain in the essay, Farage appeared to target voters tempted by the more extreme party, writing: “Only Reform has the will and ability to ensure that no young white person ever has to grow up feeling ashamed of who they are again.” The byelection is seen as a test of whether Reform can hold off the challenge from the right, with a Times poll on Friday showing Labour in the lead and the far-right vote splitting.