Britain’s ongoing debate over immigration and public sector reform took a dramatic turn this week, with new policy proposals and political maneuvers putting the future of social care, local government, and the country’s global reputation for talent on the line. As the Labour government seeks to lure top minds from abroad, Reform UK’s controversial immigration and efficiency plans have ignited fierce debate among care leaders, local officials, and business innovators.
On September 25, 2025, Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales, sounded the alarm over what he described as Reform UK’s “potentially catastrophic” proposal to threaten legal immigrants with deportation. According to Kreft, the policy—championed by Reform leader Nigel Farage—would force migrants to reapply for new visas and abolish the main route to permanent settlement in the UK. Kreft didn’t mince words, warning that such a move would devastate care homes and home care companies in Wales, which are already struggling with more than 10,000 vacancies. “These proposed new policies from Reform UK present significant risks to the adult social care sector here in Wales,” Kreft told The Carer.
Official statistics back up Kreft’s concerns. As of September 2025, 15 percent of registered care workers in Wales were born outside the UK, underscoring the sector’s heavy reliance on overseas staff. “The people who staff these vital institutions are highly skilled, giving us added value beyond helping us solve the problem of the fact that we have insufficient numbers of local people willing to work in the sector,” Kreft said. He argued that changing the rules mid-game—by stripping Indefinite Leave to Remain and moving workers back onto visas—would cause anxiety, trigger an exodus of skilled staff, and ultimately put vulnerable people at risk.
“There will be people who’ve worked for years in this country, all through Covid who’ve done fantastic work caring for people from Britain who now will be thinking, ‘am I really welcome here?’” Kreft warned. “You cannot underestimate the anxiety and fear this has already caused and it’s making it even harder to recruit staff and we may very well lose a significant number of those we currently have as they seek opportunities in countries with more welcoming attitudes.”
For Kreft and other care leaders, the stakes could not be higher. They fear that care homes and domiciliary care companies may be forced to curtail services or close altogether due to staffing shortages—a scenario that would heap even more pressure on the already stretched NHS. “When the social care sector sneezes, the NHS catches a cold. This is madness,” Kreft said.
While the social care sector grapples with these existential threats, Reform UK is also making waves in local government, where its Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) is seeking to root out waste and inefficiency. As reported by the BBC on September 26, 2025, Harriet Green, founder of tech investment firm Basis Capital, has taken a leading role in Doge’s cost-cutting drive at West Northamptonshire Council. Green’s company invests in businesses that work with or compete against local government, raising eyebrows among councillors who fear a conflict of interest.
Green is currently being vetted for access to sensitive council data, including records of spending on IT systems and hotels housing asylum seekers. The move is part of Doge’s broader effort—launched after Reform UK took control of 10 local authorities in May’s elections—to identify “waste and inefficiencies” in council budgets. However, progress has been slow: legal constraints have so far kept Doge from accessing any council data, and the unit has only visited three Reform UK-controlled councils to date, with plans to visit Lancashire County Council in October.
Some local officials have expressed deep reservations about the arrangement. Councillor Daniel Lister, who leads the Conservative opposition at West Northamptonshire, told the BBC: “When a party unit opens the door to council data, it creates an inside track where firms built to outcompete the state will thrive.” Liberal Democrat group leader Jonathan Harris also questioned Green’s qualifications, saying, “There are questions not only about skill-sets but also about whether being involved in a Doge-type activity could provide some form of competitive advantage and access to information which others would not have. This would not be allowed under procurement rules for public bodies.”
Despite these concerns, West Northamptonshire Council approved a mechanism in July 2025 to review information-sharing arrangements with third parties like Doge. The council’s report noted that by law, local authorities must not “promote or publish any material to affect public support for a political party,” highlighting the legal and ethical tightrope Reform UK must walk. Council sources say the vetting process is ongoing, while Reform UK insists Doge’s work continues, pointing to recent announcements about local government pension schemes as evidence of progress.
At the national level, the Labour government is taking a very different tack. On the same day Kreft issued his warning, UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced plans to reduce or abolish fees for the “top global talent” visa and launch a targeted campaign to attract leading minds to Britain. Speaking at the opening of a new office for British finance startup Revolut in London, Reeves drew a sharp contrast with the United States, where President Donald Trump recently announced a $100,000 fee on the H-1B visa favored by Silicon Valley tech firms.
“While President Trump announced late last week that it will make it harder to bring talent to the U.S., we want to make it easier to bring talent to the U.K.,” Reeves said. The message was clear: Britain is open for business, and the government wants to seize the opportunity to attract global talent that might otherwise head to the U.S.
For many in the business and technology sectors, Reeves’s announcement is a welcome counterpoint to the uncertainty and anxiety stirred by Reform UK’s proposals. Yet the juxtaposition of these approaches—one seeking to tighten immigration, the other to open doors—has left many wondering which vision will ultimately define Britain’s future. Will the country be known as a beacon for the world’s best and brightest, or will political point-scoring and headline-grabbing policies drive away the very people it needs most?
As the debate rages on, the implications for social care, local government, and Britain’s global competitiveness remain profound. With more than 10,000 social care vacancies in Wales alone and councils across England facing severe financial pressures, the choices made in the coming months could shape the nation’s fortunes for years to come. For now, the only certainty is that the stakes have rarely been higher—and the eyes of the world are watching.
