NIGEL FARAGE claims he wants to reduce the number of migrants. But his plan is modelled on Dubai, a country where migrants do all the work but have very few rights.

Like many right-wing politicians, Farage wants to reduce migrants’ rights more than he wants to reduce migrant numbers. He claims to want to protect “British workers,” but if you reduce migrant workers’ rights, you also drag down British workers’ rights.

Farage launched his plan to abolish “indefinite leave to remain” (ILR) and replace it work “work visas” last month. Farage reassured employers that they would help decide how many visas would be issued, saying “we will have lower skilled people on visas where there are genuine shortages in the market.”

His ally Zia Yusuf said explicitly at the launch of the plan that they would “abolish ILR altogether. We will replace it with a five-year renewable work visa just like a lot of other countries do” adding “the UAE [United Arab Emirates] “ is one of the “many comparators out there.”

The comparison with the UAE, which includes Dubai, is unsurprising. Reform Deputy Leader Richard Tice has promoted Dubai as a model society, and lives half of the year in Dubai, with his partner, Dubai resident Isabel Oakeshott.

The investment fund Legatum, which has done so much to promote Reform and right-wing politics generally, is also based in Dubai. Legatum part-own GB News, which employs Farage and pushes Reform. Legatum also funds the Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute), a key hard right “think tank.”

Dubai has loads of migrants: around 92 per cent of Dubai’s 3.9 million residents are migrants.

They do all the work. The construction workers, care workers, shop workers, nurses, drivers and so on are mostly migrants, often from South Asia.

They have very few rights and face intense exploitation and abuse. If they complain, they can lose their employer-approved work visas and get kicked out.

The Dubai model is one where you have loads of migrants, with very few rights, doing all the work.

Some Reform supporters know about Dubai but naively believe under this model they will be in the 8 per cent of “residents,” sipping champagne by the pool with Nigel and Zia and Richard.

But in reality they will be with the “workers” like the rest of us. You don’t have to push the low-rights migrant population to 92 per cent to lower workers’ rights. Anywhere you have a significant slice of the working population with lower rights — a slice who will lose their right to stay in the country if they fall out with their boss, who can’t sign on the dole if they lose their job — will see “native” workers also face downward pressure on pay and conditions.

Because an injury to one is an injury to all. If the boss can exploit one slice of the workforce, they it can use them to push back the rest.

This matters because Farage’s policy is spreading. The Tories also want to abolish ILR in favour of work visas. Labour wants to delay the right to apply for ILR from five to 10 years’ residence. All these plans will increase the number of folk on employer-dependent “work visas” by millions. They claim to defend “British workers” but offer a recipe for divide and rule, for lower wages and more exploitation. Just look at Dubai.

Follow Solomon Hughes on X @SolHughesWriter.