Aug 24, 2026 07:32 PM
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/how-fa...ts-4726428
EXCERPTS: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK plans to prioritise British-born people for social housing could spark a trade war with the EU – and end up hurting British expats, experts have warned.
The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said that the policy would breach the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, meaning that Brussels could respond by suspending elements of the UK’s trade deal with the bloc, and could even make life harder for Brits living in the EU.
On Monday, Reform unveiled a new policy to prioritise British-born workers under the age of 35 and married couples for social housing.
The policy would mean that people who were born outside the country but became naturalised British citizens – potentially decades ago – would move down the queue for council homes.
At a press conference on Monday, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “It’s not fair that young British working families, couples, individuals, veterans can’t go on the housing ladder when overseas nationals have come to the UK, and in a sense because of the current laws based on need rather than suitability, they’ve jumped ahead in the queue.”
However, Tice appeared to concede that putting British-born individuals before other British citizens would not be lawful under the current legal framework.
[...] Ben Brindle, senior researcher at Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told The i Paper: “Restricting social housing based on place of birth would represent a significant shift, as currently the law almost never distinguishes between British citizens based on where they were born.
“If a Reform government repealed the Equality Act and took the UK out of the ECHR, it would remove two key legal barriers to restricting social housing access for people born outside the UK.”
But according to Brindle, the policy would still breach the UK’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, which guarantees that “EU citizens who moved to the UK before Brexit are treated equally to Brits”.
And that’s where British expats come in. Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said that the EU could retaliate against breaches of the Withdrawal Agreement by suspending parts of the trade deal that guarantees no tariffs between the two sides, triggering a trade war that would hit the UK economy... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK plans to prioritise British-born people for social housing could spark a trade war with the EU – and end up hurting British expats, experts have warned.
The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said that the policy would breach the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, meaning that Brussels could respond by suspending elements of the UK’s trade deal with the bloc, and could even make life harder for Brits living in the EU.
On Monday, Reform unveiled a new policy to prioritise British-born workers under the age of 35 and married couples for social housing.
The policy would mean that people who were born outside the country but became naturalised British citizens – potentially decades ago – would move down the queue for council homes.
At a press conference on Monday, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “It’s not fair that young British working families, couples, individuals, veterans can’t go on the housing ladder when overseas nationals have come to the UK, and in a sense because of the current laws based on need rather than suitability, they’ve jumped ahead in the queue.”
However, Tice appeared to concede that putting British-born individuals before other British citizens would not be lawful under the current legal framework.
[...] Ben Brindle, senior researcher at Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told The i Paper: “Restricting social housing based on place of birth would represent a significant shift, as currently the law almost never distinguishes between British citizens based on where they were born.
“If a Reform government repealed the Equality Act and took the UK out of the ECHR, it would remove two key legal barriers to restricting social housing access for people born outside the UK.”
But according to Brindle, the policy would still breach the UK’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, which guarantees that “EU citizens who moved to the UK before Brexit are treated equally to Brits”.
And that’s where British expats come in. Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said that the EU could retaliate against breaches of the Withdrawal Agreement by suspending parts of the trade deal that guarantees no tariffs between the two sides, triggering a trade war that would hit the UK economy... (MORE - missing details)