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.
Reform wants to change social housing priorities – what to know
Reform UK unveiled plans to change the way social housing is allocated if it enters government.
It pledged to prioritise British-born workers under 35, veterans and married couple with children.
What does Reform say it will do?
Deputy leader Richard Tice said this morning the party would build 50,000 affordable social homes every year for a decade to fix the “broken” housing situation.
This would be funded through a new Right to Buy scheme which would allow tenants to purchase their council homes for a 30 per cent discount after five years, or 40 per cent after ten years. Two would be built for every one sold.
Who would get to live in the housing?
- People with jobs, veterans and those married with children would be prioritised, Reform said.
- Foreign nationals would be evicted and the unemployed deprioritised.
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The flaws in Reform’s plan
Rules are already tight
Most migrants are not eligible for social housing, meaning the vast majority of social tenants are UK citizens.
Homelessness risk
The current rules allocate to those with most urgent need first, so these people would be at risk from a change.
Low-income renters
The plan wouldn’t help those being pushed out of the private market by rising rents.
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Will this week’s rain end the drought?
While the UK will see some wetter weather this week, experts say it won’t be enough to undo the effects of the successive heatwaves.
Weeks or months of rainfall will likely be needed before hosepipe bans can be lifted.
Where will it rain this week?
Whilst Monday remains dry for most, showers will start arriving across southern England and Wales Tuesday.
By Wednesday, there will be rain across much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with Scotland remaining largely dry.
Thunderstorms and hail are forecast from Wednesday evening into Friday, mostly in the south.
The hard ground means flooding could be a risk in these areas.
Why won’t the drought end?
- A drought is officially over when reservoir levels return to normal.
- This usually takes several months of above-average rainfall.
- Reservoirs are currently 13.8 per cent below where they should be.
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When will hosepipe bans be lifted?
Hosepipe bans are the responsibility of water companies, while droughts are declared by the Environment Agency or its equivalent in devolved areas.
The Met Office has said a wet winter, which is looking likely, will replenish water resources.
Last year, despite a wet winter, some regions were in drought until January, and some hosepipe bans remained in place until February.
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Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball fetches £2.5m in auction
The football used by Argentina’s Diego Maradona to score his “hand of God” against England in the 1986 World Cup has sold for £2.5m at an auction in the US.
The ball was used in both goals in the quarter-final match to beat England 2-1.
Two iconic goals
The first goal saw Maradona punch the ball past goalkeeper Peter Shilton. As the referee and linesman didn’t see his hand touch the ball, the goal was allowed.
Maradona described it as scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God”.
He got past five England players to score the second goal.
How did the ball get sold?
- Referee Ali Ben Nasser collected it after the game and sold it for £1.7m in 2022.
- It was expected to fetch closer to £7.3m when it was resold this time.
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Snooker champion Graeme Dott found guilty of child sex abuse
Graeme Dott,49, was found guilty of lewd and libidinous behaviour towards a girl and a boy between 1993 and 2010 at the High Court in Glasgow.
Former world champion convicted
Dott, who won the 2006 snooker world championship, was found guilty today of sexually abusing a girl between 1993 and 1996 and a boy between 2006 and 2010.
Jurors heard from both of the victims during the trial that Dott told them not to tell anyone about the abuse.
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Adjourned for sentence
- A judge in Glasgow adjourned sentence until 29 September.
- The offences took place in the Glasgow area.
- Dott maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
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Burnham makes first overseas trip as PM to Ukraine – what to know
The Prime Minister arrived in Kyiv this morning to mark Ukraine’s independence day.
He is promising to share with Ukraine classified information to help build long-range missiles.
Burnham pledges support
- Burnham said UK support “will not waver” and Russia should be “in no doubt of our resolve”.
- He chaired his first meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the group that would send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
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What is Burnham giving Ukraine?
Burnham will allow defence firm MBDA to release classified information on UK components for the British-French SCALP long-range missile, also known as Storm Shadow.
The missile has already been supplied to Ukrainian forces, but releasing the secret technical information will allow Ukraine – with French support – to manufacture locally.
How has Russia responded?
Earlier this month, Russia’s Embassy in the UK warned of “consequences” following confirmation that British-made drones were used in Ukrainian strikes on Russia.
The embassy said the “deeper [the UK’s] involvement in the conflict… the higher price it will pay”.
President Vladimir Putin has also threatened Britain over seizing Russian “shadow fleet” tankers.
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What to know about the head-on A66 crash that killed seven
Seven people died over the weekend after a police car crashed into another vehicle that was travelling the wrong way on a dual carriageway near Middlesbrough.
Families paid tribute to the victims, as police urged the public not to speculate on the crash. Here’s what we know.
No survivors
Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak, both 23, died when the Volkswagan Passat they were in collided with the police vehicle.
PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were also pronounced dead at the scene.
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Families pay tribute
The wife of PC Blades (R) said: “He gave his life in the line of duty, protecting and serving others with courage, dedication and selflessness.”
The family of PC Clough (L) described him as “our hero” who was “always on public duty throughout his short life”.
On Monday morning, a fundraiser set up to support the two families had raised over £300,000.
How did the crash happen?
- Cleveland Police launched a chase after the Passat, believed to be using cloned plates, activated an ANPR camera.
- PC Blades and PC Clough were not involved in the chase but were called to the area.
- The pursuit took just under seven minutes and was called off seconds before the crash when the Passat began travelling the wrong way.
- Blades and Clough’s car was driving the right way.
Don’t speculate, police say
These were brave officers protecting our communities and serving our residents who didn’t return home to their families at the end of their shift.
Whilst this investigation is ongoing… I would strongly urge people to avoid speculation and respect the privacy of the families.”
Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller
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A daily pill to treat diabetes that helps with weight loss is on sale from today.
The UK is the first country in Europe to approve this medicine.
Who can get the pills?
- Pharmacies across the UK will stock Foundayo, made by Eli Lilly.
- It is only available privately, though it is being assessed for a potential NHS rollout.
- It is for type 2 diabetes patients and those with a BMI of above 30, or 27 with a weight-related condition.
- The pill is taken at various dosage levels once a day, at any time.
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Counterfeit warning
Pharmacists welcomed the launch as a step forward for people who are eligible but can’t use weight-loss injections.
They warned people against fake weight-loss pills and reminded them only to buy from licensed pharmacies.
The approval of Wegovy, the UK’s first weight-loss pill, sparked a spate of counterfeit pills.
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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.
The plan would likely fall foul of the Equality Act and the European Convention on Human Rights – both of which Reform has previously vowed to scrap.
Asked by The i Paper whether Reform would have to change the law to implement its new social housing criteria, Tice said there were “technicalities” around the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act which a Reform government would have to look at.
“We have committed to repeal the Human Rights Act,” he said. “The Equality Act, well intentioned, has actually taken us into the wrong place. So, there is some change within that, but equally, there’s much that can be done and that should be done, and the current rules are not being properly applied by many of the housing authorities and the associations.”
‘Reform’s move would spark retaliation from the EU’
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.
“This retaliation could and probably would involve measures under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that make trade with the EU more difficult,” he said. “In addition, while member states cannot breach the Withdrawal Agreement, they might respond with measures that make things tougher for Brits in their countries.”
In other words: British citizens living in the EU could end up paying the price for a policy meant to help British-born people at home.
Reform confident of avoiding a trade war
Such a retaliation may be more likely given the housing policy is not the only one to breach the Brexit deal – a Reform policy announced earlier this month to restrict most benefits solely to Britons also falls foul of the terms.
Reform has already said it is confident it could renegotiate the UK’s post-Brexit treaties with the EU to avoid a trade war.
Earlier this month, Reform’s Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said: “I think we can negotiate with the EU a hell of a lot better than Keir Starmer or Andy Burnham will do. I trust Nigel Farage to cut a good deal with the EU because he’s a strong leader who knows what he wants.”
In Monday’s press conference, Tice also set out several exceptions to the prioritisation plans when grilled by journalists. These include the children of British soldiers born overseas, domestic abuse victims, widows and widowers, and families where one parent is British.
Defending the plan to prioritise married couples – despite being divorced himself – Tice said: “Marriage is a great thing, and in a sense, when people get married, we all hope that it’s going to be for life. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it doesn’t work out. But I don’t think it’s wrong to be to be ambitious and to promote marriage.”
Brindle warned Reform’s policy would also likely to drive up homelessness. “Under current policies, the main impact of restricting social housing for non-UK-born people would be to shift more of them towards other government-sourced housing. This is because local authorities have separate duties to assist people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
“A future government that wanted to prevent non-citizens from receiving any housing support would also need to change local authorities’ duties, and would expect to see an increase in homelessness among the non-UK-born.”