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The Manufactured Cost of the Boriswave

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  • Adaramola, Shekinah

Abstract

In early 2026, Reform UK published The Cost of the Boriswave, projecting that post-Brexit migration will impose a lifetime fiscal burden of £622 billion, equivalent to approximately £20,000 per British household. The report has been refuted by economists (Gallagher, 2026), but its findings still continue to be used as a key document for Reform’s campaign to ‘stop the Boriswave’. This paper shifts the focus from methodological inquiry to two underexamined dimensions: the ideological function of the term “Boriswave” itself, and the structural, legal, and practical impossibility of the policy remedies Reform UK proposes. The paper concludes that the report is best understood as a knowingly dishonest instrument of political mobilisation, modelled on a Trumpian politics of permanent crisis, that cynically exploits public anxiety while promising a fantasy of control. Keywords: Boriswave; Reform UK; immigration; fiscal policy; Indefinite Leave to Remain; populism; national identity; European Convention on Human Rights

Suggested Citation

  • Adaramola, Shekinah, 2026. "The Manufactured Cost of the Boriswave," SocArXiv 72dp5_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:72dp5_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/72dp5_v1
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