Highlights
- Reform UK says chief executives and directors should face jail for employing illegal workers.
- Large firms could be fined 10 per cent of their global revenue under the proposal.
- Party also wants a public hotline with rewards for reports leading to prosecutions.
- Government says it is already tightening the law and dismissed parts of the plan as "empty posturing".
REFORM UK has pledged to jail company bosses who employ illegal workers and fine large businesses up to 10 per cent of their global revenue if the party wins the next general election.
Unveiling the proposals, Reform's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said companies that profit from illegal working should face the "toughest penalties anywhere in the world". He argued that some businesses have built "their entire business model" around illegal workers and should be held personally responsible.
Under the plans, chief executives and company directors would face criminal liability if their firms employed illegal migrants, regardless of whether they knew the workers' immigration status. Reform said the offence would operate under a "strict liability" system, meaning bosses could be prosecuted even without proof of knowledge.
Yusuf said the measures were aimed at stopping companies, particularly in the delivery and gig economy sectors, from benefiting from illegal labour "without consequences".
"There are companies whose entire business model is based on profiting from illegal working," he was quoted as saying. "It is a slap in the face to the public. It makes a mockery of our immigration laws, takes jobs from British workers and is funding the people smugglers in the Channel."
He added: "Young British people are being shut out of entry-level jobs and our whole economy is being undermined."
Reform also said it would introduce a public reporting hotline for suspected illegal working and organised criminal activity. Police and trading standards officers would be required to investigate credible reports, while people whose information led to successful prosecutions would receive a share of the fines collected.
Britain became 'softest-touch country in the world'
Yusuf accused both Labour and the Conservatives of making Britain "the softest-touch country in the world for illegal migrants to undercut British workers". He said a Reform government would introduce "the harshest penalties in the world for those employing illegal migrants".
Current rules already allow employers to be fined up to £60,000 for each illegal worker they employ. Businesses can also face closure, licence revocation and, in serious cases, prison sentences of up to five years.
Government plans announced in June will also require employers in the gig economy, including delivery platforms, to carry out right-to-work checks from October 1, closing a loophole that currently exempts many self-employed workers.
Responding to Reform's announcement, a Home Office spokesperson said the government was already "closing the loopholes that allow illegal migrants to work in the UK by extending right to work checks to the gig economy and delivery sector".
The spokesperson said employers who break the law already face "severe consequences", including fines, business closures, licence revocations and prison terms of up to five years.
A Home Office source dismissed parts of Reform's proposals as "empty posturing", saying the government was already introducing many of the measures being suggested.
According to the Home Office, enforcement action has increased since Labour took office, with illegal working arrests up by 83 per cent and workplace raids rising by 77 per cent. More than 9,000 people were arrested for illegal working last year, including thousands in restaurants, takeaways, delivery services and the beauty sector.
