Reform UK’s newest MP Danny Kruger has denied there are plans for “some sort of pensioner deportation programme”.
The MP for East Wiltshire was responding to concerns that proposals to scrap the indefinite leave to remain status under a Reform government could mean people who had lived and worked in the UK for decades could be made to leave the country.
Kruger, who defected from the Conservatives last week, said that was not the case but told the BBC that “prioritising UK citizens” and culture was necessary.
The evangelical Christian also insisted Muslim immigration is a threat to the culture of the UK, and warned criticising people for using words like “invasion” in relation to migrants was shutting down “legitimate concerns”.
In his first interview since defecting from the Conservatives last week, Kruger was challenged on his new party’s controversial stance on indefinite leave to remain on the Political Thinking podcast.
Under the current system, migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years in the UK, giving them the right to live, study and work in the UK permanently.
The BBC’s Nick Robinson asked whether pensioners would suddenly have to leave the country after many years due to the change in their status.
Kruger replied: “Of course there’s no intention to have some sort of pensioner deportation programme,” adding these residents should apply for British citizenship.
“What we’re trying to do is to ensure that many of those people who have come into this country in recent years will have to leave voluntarily because they will no longer be entitled to benefits, which they shouldn’t be getting in the first place,” he said.
“Or to apply for a visa that enables them to stay as long as they’re working and paying their way and can speak English.”
He added: “We’re going to end the status of indefinite leave to remain, which is a passport to mass migration, as we’ve seen. Millions of people coming to this country, initially temporarily, but then ending up here forever.”
Kruger insisted the changes were necessary due to the “scale and speed” of immigration from Muslim countries because he said the faith did not easily allow for cultural integration with the “traditional habits of life of the UK”.
Politicians like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson should be allowed to speak the “democratic language” of “ordinary people”, he added, rather than “highfalutin or professional” words – even when that extends to claiming there is an “invasion” of immigrants.
He said: “My concern is when whole cities essentially become Muslim, then we’ve got change that I don’t think people voted for and is not consistent with the best interests of our country as a whole.
“We are getting a segregated society. We’re seeing people living, not just as there’s always been in this country, sad to say, class divisions and some cultural divisions, but whole communities living an entirely un-British life.”
Kruger claimed present day immigration was unlike previous waves that had seen Jewish and Catholic immigrants come to the UK and successfully integrated because the “rate of immigration is simply too great and too swift”.
When asked whether his statements were likely to incite division, the Reform MP claimed these were “legitimate concerns” that were causing “such distress and disquiet in so many communities around the UK”.
