Zia Yusuf has been mocked after announcing plans for Reform to introduce a law, that everyone then pointed out to him actually already exists.
It’s been a week of big announcements for Reform. They kicked things off with their Operation Fortress policy, which looks set to spark a serious diplomatic dispute with France over whether Royal Navy ships should be allow to enter their waters and Royal Marines should be allowed to disembark migrants on French shores.
Then, it was confirmed that a second member of their senior leadership, Richard Tice, was under investigation from the parliamentary standards watchdog over a possible failure to declare an interest.
And finally, to cap things off, Zia Yusuf announced on Thursday that Reform would crackdown on illegal working in the UK with a so-called ‘Deliveroo Law.’
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Reform’s home affairs spokesman said the law was aimed at stopping British firms from employing immigrants who do not have the legal right to work in this country.
He said: “Under this legislation, company directors will be held personally responsible and criminally liable for systemic illegal working within their businesses, regardless of whether they claim personal knowledge of individual breaches.
“If a company accumulates material immigration breaches, or fails to demonstrate compliant right to work checks, its executives will face up to five years in prison.”
There was just one small hitch with this – there are already laws in place to address this exact thing.
The government website states that anyone found guilty of employing someone with no right to work in the UK can be sentenced to five years behind bars and have to pay an unlimited fine.
Reacting to Reform’s ‘Deliveroo Law’ – dubbed so by Yusuf because of the previous reports of Channel migrants carrying out work for the company by renting out other people’s accounts – a Home Office source told the BBC: “The government is already doing much of this. The rest is just empty posturing.”
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson mocked Yusuf over the announcement, labelling the Reform man a “pillock.”
He wrote on X: “Oh dear Zia Yusuf! It’s already illegal and the offence carries a prison sentence of up to five years. What a pillock!”
And Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said the announcement was a “desperate attempt” from Reform to “deflect attention from the ever-growing catalogue of scandals engulfing Nigel Farage and his party.”
She continued: “This Labour government is already cracking down on illegal working. Since July 2024, illegal working enforcement activity has reached record levels, with arrests up 83% and raids up 77%.
“Rather than trying to distract the public, Farage needs to come clean and explain why he did not declare his secret £5million ‘gift’ from a crypto billionaire. The public deserve better than a party who clearly think the rules don’t apply to them.”