Nigel Farage has proposed banning foreign nationals from social housing and deporting those who fail to secure private sector accommodation within three months, in a hardening of anti-immigration rhetoric ahead of the Makerfield by-election. The policy, which Reform UK has termed “Operation Restoring Justice,” would give non-citizens a grace period to find a private rented home before losing their right to remain and facing removal from the country.
Under the plan, foreign nationals would be evicted from council properties and, if unable to relocate to the private rented sector within three months, would be “liable for deportation.” Farage said Reform would “preference veterans and long-term local residents for social housing” if it were in power, arguing that taxpayers should not subsidise housing for non-citizens while Britons face long waiting lists. The party’s manifesto already includes a “UK Connection Test” to change social housing allocation laws, prioritising “local people and those who have paid into the system.”
The specifics of the proposal mark a significant escalation. Reform UK also intends to abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR), replacing it with renewable five-year visas. Existing ILR holders would have their status rescinded and need to reapply, potentially against higher salary thresholds of around £60,000 a year. The party has proposed suspending visa issuance for countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals with no legal right to remain, specifically naming Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia. A planned “Illegal Migration Mass Deportation Act” would make it a legal duty for the Home Office to enforce removal and restrict judicial intervention, with detention becoming mandatory and bail harder to obtain.
The reality of social housing eligibility
In practice, the current system already restricts access to social housing for most migrants. Eligibility depends on immigration status: individuals must have recourse to public funds (no “No Recourse to Public Funds” condition) and pass a habitual residence test. Refugees, those with ILR or EU settled status can apply, but migrants on temporary work, study or family visas are typically barred. The notion that immigrants are routinely prioritised over British nationals has been described by housing experts as a “zombie myth”: census data shows a smaller percentage of people in social housing were born outside the UK than their proportion in the general population, and most foreign-born tenants have lived in the country for decades.
Farage set out the policy in his first post on a new Substack account, in an essay titled “Britain Is A Two Tier State – Against White People.” The 6,800-word piece mentioned white people more than 60 times and claimed that “white Brits will become a minority in this country before the end of the century” because of “the mass migration policies of Conservative and Labour governments.” He wrote that “anti-whiteness is institutionalised into every aspect of public life” and that “there is nothing fair about the way white people have been treated by their governments.”
The essay also reiterated Reform UK’s plan to abolish the Equality Act 2010, which consolidated protections against discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation. Farage said: “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.” Amnesty International UK has warned that repealing the Act would “threaten the rights of millions” and send a message about “whose rights matter and whose do not.”
In healthcare, Farage promised to “cap the recruitment of foreign doctors to ensure that British patients are not being put at risk.” In education, he insisted university admissions should be “purely meritocratic” to stop white students being “squeezed to make way.” Farage made no direct mention of his far-right rival Restore Britain, but said pointedly: “Only Reform has the will and the ability to ensure that no young white person ever has to grow up feeling ashamed of who they are again.”
The Daily Mail have dedicated their entire Sunday front page to some bullshit hit piece about how a handful of Restore Britain activists attended some deportation conference.
They are terrified. Why?
We are winning.
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 14, 2026
The Makerfield by-election context
The policy push comes as Reform UK faces a serious electoral challenge in the Greater Manchester constituency of Makerfield. Two recent polls have suggested that support for Restore Britain, the party led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, could cost Reform the chance of winning the seat. A survey by More in Common and the UCL Policy Lab for The Times put Labour’s candidate, Andy Burnham, on 45%, Reform on 40% and Restore on 8%. Another poll by Convergence, reported in the Sunday Times, gave Burnham 49%, 12 points ahead of Reform on 37%, with Restore on 5%. Additional polling by Survation showed Burnham leading Reform’s candidate by three points, with Restore on 7%, and an Opinium poll indicated a narrow Labour lead.
The by-election was triggered by the death of the previous Labour MP, and Burnham – the Mayor of Greater Manchester and a former MP for the nearby Leigh constituency – is standing in an attempt to hold the seat. Reform UK’s candidate is local councillor Robert Kenyon, who stood for the party in the 2024 general election. Restore Britain is fielding Rebecca Shepherd. With the right-wing vote splitting four days before polling day, the Mail on Sunday gave its editorial backing to Reform and splashed its front page on a report that Restore was being backed by activists who attended a recent neo-Nazi summit.
The Restore Britain controversy
The newspaper reported that those campaigning for Restore this weekend included Callum Barker, who attended a “Remigration Summit” in Portugal last month that discussed the far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory. Speakers at the conference included Lucy White and Lorcan Barker, who, like Callum Barker, have been pictured with Rupert Lowe. Restore Britain advocates for the deportation of all illegal immigrants, protecting British culture and restoring “Christian principles,” and has been labelled as more right-wing than Reform. Lowe dismissed the report as a sign of his party’s success. Writing on X, he said: “The Daily Mail have dedicated their entire Sunday front page to some bullshit hit piece about how a handful of Restore Britain activists attended some deportation conference. They are terrified. Why? We are winning.”
The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, whose constituency neighbours Makerfield, was asked about Farage’s Substack essay. She told Sky News: “I think he should take his nasty hate and anger and division somewhere else. Frankly, I’ve had enough of it, and I think a lot of us round our way have as well.” Nandy, who grew up in a mixed-race family, said Farage’s rhetoric followed a familiar playbook of scapegoating and warned that Reform UK’s policies would “destroy Britain’s cultural landscape” and turn the country into a “cultural wasteland.” Labour has branded the proposals as “racist” and “immoral,” with Sir Keir Starmer accusing Farage of peddling an “immoral” policy by pledging to scrap settled status for non-EU migrants. A tactical voting website, Stop Reform UK, is encouraging voters to back Burnham to prevent Reform from winning.
