REFORM UK vowed to jail the bosses of companies found to be employing staff illegally amid ongoing scrutiny over its leader Nigel Farage’s finances today.

The party’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said that it would pay members of the public for tip-offs that lead to successful prosecutions of High Street shops employing illegal workers if it gained power.

He told a press conference that Reform would make it a legal duty for local authorities to investigate every “credible report” they receive.

The financial rewards under its so-called “Turkish barbers tip line” would be paid from larger fines it would impose on firms using illegal employees.

Reform pledged to fine larger firms up to 10 per cent of their global revenues, and imprison the bosses of companies employing illegal migrants.

Unison assistant general secretary Jon Richards told the Morning Star: “No-one should be employing staff illegally. 

“Yet the details of Reform UK’s latest unworkable scheme would unravel as soon as it bumps up against reality. 

“The party just wants to distract attention away from allegations about its finances.”

Companies have a legal responsibility to verify that people they employ directly have the right to work in Britain. For agency workers, the responsibility lies with the agency to conduct the relevant checks.

Last year the Labour government extended this requirement to self-employed contractors carrying out work on behalf of a company.

There are sanctions including fines of up to £60,000 per unauthorised worker which Mr Yusuf said only presented a “minor inconvenience” for bigger firms.

The Home Office said: “We are already closing the loopholes that allow illegal migrants to work in the UK by extending right to work checks to the gig economy and delivery sector.

“Employers who break the law face severe consequences, including fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, business closures, licence revocations and prison sentences of up to five years.”

A source within the department added: “The government is already doing much of this. The rest is just empty posturing.”

A parliamentary investigation into Mr Farage’s receipt of a £5 million gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne before he was elected is under way.

Mr Farage’s deputy Richard Tice is under a separate investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog over an alleged failure to declare an interest.