Robert Jenrick confirms Brexit renegotiation plan as GB News quizzes Reform on £50bn welfare cuts

Robert Jenrick has confirmed Reform UK will renegotiate Boris Johnson's Brexit deal with the European Union if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister after the next general election.

Reform UK's Treasury spokesman spoke out on the EU plan after being asked by GB News's Katherine Forster about the impact of stripping benefits payments from European nationals with settled status.

Mr Jenrick, who originally campaigned to remain in the Brussels bloc in 2016, voiced his disapproval of Mr Johnson's deal and distanced himself from the 2019 Tory manifesto.

The Newark MP defected from the Tories in January this year, having spent more than a decade representing his Nottinghamshire constituents as a Conservative.

Responding to GB News's question, Mr Jenrick said: "I come back to the guiding principle that is behind everything that Richard and I have said today: fairness.

"The welfare state throughout its entire history has been about contribution.

"It was National Insurance Contributions. Beveridge spoke about contribution.

"That's the principle we want to restore. And it is not fair that British citizens are paying billions and billions of pounds every year to people who are not even Brits at all.

"One-fifth of Universal Credit claimants are not British. That's crazy. Just imagine what we can do with that money.

"Now, there's clearly going to be a renegotiation. The deal that was done, I don't believe, was a good deal.

"I think many people would support that. There are a number of points on which Reform has already made clear that we will need to return to our neighbours in the EU and renegotiate upon, and this will be one of them.

"Let's see. I'm confident that we can do that and we can restore fairness in the process.

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Reform UK insists banning migrants from claiming welfare will claw back £21billion a year by its fifth year, with the overall plan expected to cut Britain's ballooning benefits bill by £50billion.

Mr Jenrick has set aside £500million of contingency funding to cover the potential cost of British citizens returning to the UK to claim benefits if their entitlement to welfare in the EU is withdrawn.

However, the pot would only cover 10 per cent of the 1.3 million British citizens currently living in the EU.

In a social media post released shortly after Mr Jenrick's press conference, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed one in seven Universal Credit claimants are foreign nationals.

The Clacton MP, who was a key architect of the Brexit campaign, also pointed out that those in the UK on EU settled status accounted for 58 per cent of all welfare claimants.

However, Reform UK's rivals have put pressure on Mr Jenrick not to reopen the wounds of the Brexit debate.

Shadow Pensions Secretary Helen Whately dismissed the plans as “cobbled together” proposals that “will drag Britain back into Brexit battles with no certainty of success”.

She said: “British people want welfare spending under control, abuse stamped out and dignity for people who are seriously disabled: serious reforms which take hard work.”

Meanwhile, a Labour spokesman said: “These plans would mean ripping up the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, plunging the UK back into years of Brexit renegotiations and stripping support from potentially millions of people who have lawfully lived, worked and paid taxes in Britain for years, and in many cases decades.

“That includes people with settled status who are part of our communities, raising families, working and contributing to our economy.”

However, Brexiteers have issued dire warnings about Labour's renegotiations with the EU.

Cabinet Minister Hamish Falconer this month committed to pursuing a "deeper relationship" with the Brussels bloc, insisting there was "room to be ambitious".