Nigel Farage's Reform UK would pay countries to take migrants back

Reform UK would seek to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers in its first parliament if elected to government.

Nigel Farage warned of a “genuine threat to public order” without action to tackle illegal migration as he and Zia Yusuf launched the party’s plans at an event at London Oxford Airport.

Reform UK describes its “operation restoring justice” as a five-year emergency programme to detain and deport illegal migrants and deter future arrivals that they would enact if elected to government.

Downing Street criticised Farage’s plans as “old gimmicks”, while emphasising Sir Keir Starmer’s grasp of the public’s “strength of feeling” on the issue of small boat crossings, over which the Prime Minister is facing mounting pressure.

Reform UK pledged to scale up detention capacity for asylum seekers to 24,000 and secure deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran to return migrants to their countries.

Farage failed to answer when asked how much he would be prepared to pay to Iran and the Taliban to take deportees back.

No 10 swerved criticising Reform UK’s proposals to reach returns deals with countries with chequered human rights records.

Asked whether the Government could seek deals with Afghanistan and Eritrea, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “We’re not going to take anything off the table in terms of striking returns agreements with countries around the world.”

The official denied Farage’s claim that the country was at risk of civil disorder while stressing ministers “recognise the strength of feeling about this”.

“That’s why we’re taking serious practical action to address this issue, not just returning back to the old gimmicks, the old solutions that failed to deal with this,” Sir Keir’s spokesman said.

Farage said everyone who arrives on a small boat would be detained, including women and unaccompanied children.

Reform UK claims the plan will cost £10bn to implement but save £7bn currently spent on illegal migration during the first five years.

The party would leave the European Convention on Human Rights and replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, which would apply only to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in the UK.

They would also bring forward legislation to make everyone who arrives illegally ineligible for asylum and allow asylum seekers to be detained until deportation.

Farage said: “The mood in the country around this issue is a mix between total despair and rising anger.

“And I would say this, that without action, without somehow the contract between the Government and the people being renewed, without some trust coming back, then I fear deeply that that anger will grow.

“In fact, I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order.”

He said the only way to stop small boat arrivals is by “detaining and deporting absolutely anyone that comes via that route”.

“And if we do that, the boats will stop coming within days, because there will be no incentive to pay a trafficker to get into this country.”

Farage and former Reform UK chair Yusuf suggested some 600,000 or more people could be deported under the plan.

“But do we realistically think, Zia, we can deport five, 600,000 people in the lifetime of the first parliament?”

Yusuf replied: “Totally,” adding that there are “north of 650,000 adults without children who are in this country illegally”.

Yusuf said the party would disapply the 1951 Refugee Contention and the UN Convention Against Torture, and the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention. He told the event that the Home Office, immigration tribunals and “higher courts of jurisdiction” would not be allowed to consider asylum claims.

“We’ll pass a law that makes clear that if you came to this country illegally, you will never be granted asylum. End of story.”

Downing Street ruled out leaving the ECHR, with Sir Keir’s spokesman saying: “The ECHR underpins key international agreements, trade, security and migration and the Good Friday Agreement. Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement is not serious.”

It comes as the Government prepares to send back the first small boat arrivals to France under the one-in, one-out migrant deal.

A record 28,947 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, after 659 migrants did so on Monday in nine boats.

The UK coastguard confirmed its involvement in the rescue of “a number” of small boat crossings from the English Channel on Tuesday.

Sir Keir is facing growing pressure from senior Labour figures and his own supporters, who feel the Government’s attempts to tackle the migrant crisis have so far failed.

YouGov polling released over the weekend found that 71% of voters believe the Prime Minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56% of Labour supporters.

The Liberal Democrats criticised Reform UK for “ripping up” human rights and involving potential payments to autocratic regimes.

“The idea that Reform UK is going to magic up some new places to detain people and deport them to, but don’t have a clue where those places would be, is taking the public for fools,” Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said.

She added: “Reform’s Taliban tribute plan would send British taxpayers’ cash to fund their oppressive regime, fuelling the persecution of Afghan women and children and betraying our brave Armed Forces who sacrificed so much fighting the Taliban.”

The Conservatives accused Reform UK of “re-heating and recycling” Tory plans on immigration.

Speaking to the PA news agency during a visit to a farm in Essex, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “We need to make sure that anyone who comes to our country illegally is deported. We have experience in Government of finding some of these deportations difficult.

“That is why we had the third country deterrent, which was the Rwanda plan. Some countries will not cooperate. But from what Reform has announced today, they haven’t done the thinking, they’ve just copied our homework, but they don’t understand the reasons behind them.”