Since 2018, more than 180,000 illegal migrants have arrived in small boats on to British shores. They have added to the estimated 1.2 million illegals that are living in our country, and that figure is potentially far higher.
The cost of this illegal population is estimated at a minimum of £16.4 billion a year. This is based on the cost of providing services such as education and the NHS to a UK national, which is £12,000 a year. That doesn’t include the costs of migrant hotel spending, which stands at £5.7m a day or £2.1bn a year.
The illegal migrants in these hotels are almost all young adult men; you can see the demographics for yourself when you walk past the local asylum hotel in your town centre. Since 2018, over two-thirds of illegal migrants have been adult males aged 18 and over, and that’s not counting the migrants who we are unable to identify and claim to be 15 years old. The majority of these men are from countries that are alien to our own, such as Afghanistan and Sudan.
If you’re 21 years old and Afghan, you can arrive illegally on a dinghy, receive free accommodation, free food, a free mobile phone, and work illegally with no consequences, all paid for by British taxpayers.
If you’re 21 years old and British-born, you get none of that. Instead, you pay half your wages in rent to live in a shoebox flat, and your taxes help fund the illegal migrant hotel bill. If you’re not angry yet, you should be.
It is really no coincidence that our country has only declined further since the beginning of this invasion; this is a sick and perverse situation the British people find themselves in. We are paying to house, clothe, feed and look after the youth of Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and the rest, all whilst we neglect our own British-born youth.
The invasion began under the Conservatives, who promised to stop the boats but failed miserably. Nothing since suggests they would succeed if given another chance, a few 30-second videos from Robert Jenrick does not change that. Under Labour, the situation has only worsened: more than 50,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since Keir Starmer became Prime Minister. His response is to fight in court a ruling that blocked migrants from being housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping.
The British political class have built a country in which its own youth struggle to prosper, with young people in Britain today set to be the first generation in history to be poorer than their parents, all whilst giving freebies to anyone who steps off a boat.
This perverse situation must end, and that’s why Tuesday mattered. Reform UK unveiled its deportation plan, which pledges the mass deportations of all illegal migrants. Flanked by a huge Union Flag and deportation departure boards detailing potential flights that will take off when Reform is in government, Nigel Farage set out what would be done. Leave the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, and pass the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.
The Bill is thorough, but a key aspect is that it will create a legal duty for the Home Secretary to remove illegal migrants. This holds any future Reform Home Secretary directly and legally accountable, something which has been missing in our politics for decades. For too long, politicians have been able to fail upwards with no consequence; that time is coming to an end.
Recent polling reflects the enormous anger in the country at the current situation, and the sentiment among young people is also catching up. In a recent YouGov poll, 45% of Britons say they would support an immigration scenario whereby no more new migrants are admitted, and large numbers of recent migrants are required to leave, with 1 in 4 of 18-24 year olds supporting.
Every penny spent on illegal migrants is money not spent on cutting taxes, building infrastructure or funding university students. That betrayal cannot continue. Those who are here illegally must go home, and British taxes must be spent on British youth.
Mass deportations will not just end this invasion, but they will restore hope to a generation of British youth who deserve to live in a country that puts them first.