Bristol MP Carla Denyer invites Nigel Farage to visit Bristol
The Bristol MP has invited the leader of Reform UK to meet the city's migrants
The MP for Bristol Central has invited the leader of Reform UK to visit Bristol and meet the city's migrants.
Carla Denyer has reached out to Nigel Farage after he announced plans to deport hundreds of thousands of legal migrants, if he came into power.
At a press conference in London, Farage said Reform UK would end the right of migrants to apply for permanent residency in the UK after five years, and force those who already have settled status to reapply for a new stricter visa.
Reform UK wants to abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR), for which migrants can currently apply after five years, and force them to renew their visa every five years.
Applicants would have to meet certain criteria, including a higher salary threshold and better standard of English.
They would have to have lived in the UK for seven years, up from five, and there would be tighter restrictions on bringing spouses and children to the UK.
"I would like to invite Nigel Farage to come to Bristol and actually meet some of the people he wants to kick out of this country," said Carla Denyer.
"Actually meet the individuals who do incredibly important work looking after our elders in the care system, people who volunteer in the local community, grandparents with generations of family around them.
"Every poll and election shows that people in Bristol recognise the valuable contribution that migrants make to our community and we want to welcome them," Denyer added.
Speaking at a press conference in central London, the Reform UK leader referred to the numbers of migrants who came when Boris Johnson was prime minister.
He said the figures represented the "greatest betrayal of democratic wishes certainly in anyone's living memory".
Mr Farage said: "Far too many that have come don't work, have never worked and never will work.
"The ability to bring dependents of all kinds, and when you realise that most that come are very low skilled, and on very low wages, you start to get a very very different picture. In fact, you start to get a massive benefits bill."
A Government spokesperson said: "People here illegally rightly do not get anything from our benefits system.
"Foreign nationals usually have to wait five years to claim universal credit and we're looking at increasing this to 10 years.
"We inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling benefits bill. That's why we're taking action and reforming the system and have seen the proportion of universal credit payments to foreign nationals fall since last July."