Zia Yusuf has repeated Reform UK's promise to impose sweeping financial and criminal penalties on companies found employing people who do not have the right to work in Britain.
In a post on X, Reform's home affairs spokesman said a future government led by the party would introduce what it calls the "Deliveroo Law".
Under the proposal, companies hiring people working illegally could be fined an amount equal to 10% of their global revenue. Yusuf also said company bosses would be held personally criminally liable on a "strict liability" basis and could be imprisoned.
Strict liability ordinarily means that prosecutors would not need to establish that a defendant intended to commit the offence or knew that the unlawful conduct was taking place. However, Reform has not published draft legislation setting out precisely which directors would be covered, what conduct would trigger liability, what defences would be available or how sentences would be determined.
Any term of imprisonment would follow a criminal conviction and be imposed by a court, rather than directly by ministers.
What would the ‘Deliveroo Law’ change?
It is already unlawful to employ somebody who does not have permission to work in the United Kingdom.
Under the current system, a business can receive a civil penalty of up to £45,000 for each worker in a first breach and £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach if it cannot establish that the required right-to-work checks were completed properly.
An employer who knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, that somebody was working illegally can already face an unlimited fine and a prison sentence of up to five years following conviction.
The Government has also legislated to extend right-to-work obligations beyond conventional employees to parts of the gig economy, including businesses using workers, individual subcontractors and online services matching workers with customers.
Reform's proposal would go considerably further by linking corporate fines to worldwide revenue and removing the need, under its proposed strict-liability offence, to prove that an individual director knew or had reasonable cause to believe that illegal working was occurring.
It is not yet clear whether the 10% sanction would apply to every breach or only repeated or systemic offending. Reform's official announcement described the proposed law as targeting "systemic illegal working" within businesses, while Yusuf's latest post used the broader formulation of companies that hire illegal migrants.
‘Turkish Barbers tip line’
Yusuf also repeated Reform's proposal for what it calls a "Turkish Barbers tip line", through which members of the public could report high-street businesses they regarded as suspicious.
The name of the proposed service has attracted criticism from Turkish business owners and community representatives, who argue that it singles out an ethnic identity and risks casting suspicion on legitimate barbers.
A public report would not itself establish that a business employed anybody illegally or was involved in criminal activity. Any allegation would require investigation and evidence before enforcement action or criminal proceedings could properly follow.
Yusuf linked the proposal to changes on British high streets, claiming that seven vape shops had opened for every pub lost in recent years. No source for that particular comparison was included in his post, and the figures do not by themselves demonstrate that any shop is engaged in illegal activity.
He also said that many high-street businesses were fronts for organised crime. That is a general allegation made by Yusuf; it should not be understood as applying to any particular vape shop, barber, nail bar or other business without supporting evidence.
Money promised for regeneration and victims
Reform says revenue raised through the proposed corporate fines would be used to regenerate communities it says have been harmed by illegal migration.
Yusuf listed compensation for victims of crimes committed by migrants, financial rewards for police forces making arrests and funding to rebuild high-street businesses among the proposed uses.
No detailed mechanism has yet been published explaining how compensation would be assessed, how funds would be distributed or whether payments to police forces would be linked simply to arrests or to subsequent charges and convictions.
Rewarding arrests would be likely to provoke questions about safeguards and incentives, because an arrest is an investigative step and does not establish guilt.
Policy forms part of wider Reform campaign
The statement continues a series of hard-line announcements from Yusuf covering illegal migration, welfare eligibility and the responsibilities of businesses and their directors.
In this case, however, the stated target is illegal working and the companies facilitating it, rather than foreign nationals who are lawfully employed in Britain.
Yusuf accused Conservative and Labour governments of making Britain one of the world's softest destinations for illegal migrants. He said Reform would instead introduce what he described as the toughest penalties anywhere in the world for employers hiring people illegally.
That international comparison has not been independently demonstrated. The proposed measures remain Reform UK policy and are not currently law.