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Nigel Farage has been warned about his plan Indefinite leave of thousands of people should be taken away with retrospective effect The policy would be blocked by the courts as lawyers say it would “ruin Britain’s reputation for impartiality”.
Immigration lawyers have told Independent The retrospective element of the policy is likely to be successfully challenged in the courts Britain left or not European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Because the expectation that laws cannot be changed without consideration is a “cornerstone of administrative law around fairness”.
It’s Mr. Faraz’s party Pledged to end settled status for all non-EU migrants, People who have been granted indefinite leave to remain need to reapply under a more strict rule – meaning Thousands of people who are legally resident in Britain could be at risk of deportation.
Indefinite Leave to Remain is a status that gives legal immigrants the ability to settle in the UK without having to renew their visa every few years.
reform leader Said the current ILR option – open to people who have lived and worked in Britain for five years – “betrayed democracy” and vowed to scrap it.
But lawyers have cast doubt on whether the plan would be practical in practice, warning that it could be successfully challenged in the courts on the basis of “legitimate expectation”.
“People don’t have the right to rely on the law and change it retroactively,” said Bethan Lant, a lawyer at the migration charity Praxis.
“If you can change the law at any time and apply it retroactively then it undermines the basic rule of law.”
He added: “In 2008, the government changed some of the settlement routes around high-skilled workers and they said this would impact people who were already here. This was successfully challenged in the courts because those people had a legitimate expectation that they could live when they arrived.
,[With Farage’s plan]You’ll have arguments around the legitimate expectation that you can’t retroactively change the rules for an entire class of people who are already here and already on their way to being here.
Ms Lant said Independent This aspect of the policy would be challenged even if the UK left the ECHR, as legitimate expectation is a “cornerstone of administrative law around fairness”.
Meanwhile, Helena Shezon, a specialist immigration lawyer at Cadmos Consultants, warned that revoking ILRs from those who already have an ILR and taking away the option to apply for an ILR from those who are in the UK on the immigration route with a legitimate expectation of obtaining an ILR at the end of the qualifying period would undermine the rule of law.
“The first scenario is much more extreme and can be compared to stripping citizenship of individuals born abroad, or whose parents were born abroad,” he said.
“Of course, the rule of law is part of the UK constitution and non-retroactivity of laws is part of this principle.
“But ‘constitution’ and ‘rule of law’ are both legal and philosophical concepts and if you have a populist government that feels that the restoration of Anglo-Saxon purity is a political agenda, the constitution is unlikely to be a major deterrent – you can always pass amendments to the constitution if necessary, but most likely no one will bother.”
Former Tory solicitor general and justice secretary Robert Buckland Casey warned that Mr Farage’s plan is “contrary to our British values”.
He said: “With only a few carefully guarded exceptions, when we make our laws, we do not apply them to past circumstances, because that would create clear injustice to innocent people.
“This principle is deeply embedded in our common law, and rightly so. Once again, we can see that Farage’s approach is at odds with our British values.”
Meanwhile, Labor Party chair and Redcar MP Anna Turley branded the plan “extreme and divisive”, saying it would “tear communities apart” and “separate foreign-born parents, who are here legally, from their children who were born here and are British citizens”.
“It will also destroy Britain’s reputation for impartiality and undermine the rule of law that has held this country together for generations,” he said. Independent.
When the reform leader first unveiled the plans, they were branded “racist” by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – despite Labor also announcing its own plans to tighten the rules for claiming indefinite leave.
Sir Keir told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in September: “It’s one thing to say we will remove illegal immigrants, people who have no right to be here. I’m all for that.
“It’s a completely different thing to say we’re going to reach out to people who are here legally and start removing them. They’re our neighbors.”
Asked directly about Reform UK’s policy, he said: “I think it’s a racist policy. I think it’s immoral. It needs to be exposed for what it is.”
But Zia Yousaf, policy head of Reform UK, said: “Labour’s message to the country is clear: pay hundreds of billions to foreign nationals to stay out of the state forever, otherwise Labor will call you a racist.
“The reform plan will ensure that only British people can access welfare and contribute to migrant society.”
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Only Reform UK will put British citizens first, stop ‘Boriswave’ and end benefits for migrants.
“The British people will no longer accept leftist lawyers blocking their wishes.”