Reform’s new UK Deportation Command would use a “cutting edge data fusion centre” to track down illegal migrants.
Zia Yusuf said the centre would automatically share data between the police, the Home Office, the NHS, the DVLA, HMRC and banks.
He said: “This will allow Deportation Command to relentlessly track down and detain all those who entered our country illegally.”
Yusuf said Reform would build the capacity to detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants at a time, allowing the party to deport up to 280,000 a year.
He said: “Detention will mean deportation, no chance of bail, no chance of absconding.”
Judges ‘will be powerless to stop deportation flights’
Reform has promised to launch a new UK Deportation Command which would combine an “uncompromising legal reset with national scale, relentless enforcement”.
Zia Yousaf said the Home Office, immigration tribunals and higher courts would be stripped of powers to ”even consider asylum claims” if a person came to Britain illegally.
He said: “There will not be a lawyer nor a judge in the country that will be able to prevent a deportation flight from leaving.”
Yusuf said re-entering after deportation or destroying identification documents would become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.
He said: “We will pair this legislative reset with a UK deportation command that is a dedicated force to identifying, detaining and deporting illegal migrants at scale.”
‘More than a million illegal migrants in the UK’
The true number of illegal immigrants in Britain is “considerably higher” than one million, a senior Reform figure has claimed.
Zia Yusuf, the former party chairman, told a press conference that “year after year, tens of thousands of fighting age males, as Nigel said, have arrived on our beaches”.
He said: “The total number of illegal immigrants in the country now stands at at least a million. The true number could be considerably higher than that.”
Yusuf said: “In fact, more people have arrived on our beaches illegally over the last eight years than stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, and they’re rewarded for this by a political class that puts them up in hotels at the British taxpayers expense, given free meals, free health care, free TV licences, and as our Doge team has revealed, even free trips to the safari park and to the cinema.”
He said: “The patience of the British people is now exhausted.”
Reform is ‘only party to be trusted on immigration’
Nigel Farage speaking in Oxfordshire on Tuesday
JACOB KING/PA
Reform is “the only party that can genuinely be trusted” on immigration, Nigel Farage claimed.
He said: “I am the only party leader that has been clear and consistent on this issue over the course of the last five years, and I have a feeling that what we’re doing today with Operation Restoring Justice is going to be very popular in the wider country indeed.”
Farage: Reform would stop small boats within days
Nigel Farage has pledged that in government Reform would leave the ECHR and promised to stop the boats crossing the Channel “within days”.
Setting out his deportations plan, Farage said: “We have to leave the ECHR, no ifs, no buts.
“It may have been a good idea 80 years ago. Frankly, it isn’t today.”
He said Reform would repeal the Human Rights Act of 1998, disapply the 1951 refugee convention for five years, and remove “any other barriers that can be used by lawyers in this country to prevent deportations, to prevent the right thing from happening”.
He said: “We will create a legal duty for the Home Secretary to remove those that come illegally, and crucially, we will detain all illegal migrants who come, and we will do so immediately.
“The only way we will stop the boats is by detaining and deporting absolutely anyone that comes via that route.”
Britain is being invaded by migrants, Farage says
Nigel Farage said the influx of migrants to Britain was an “invasion” that he had been warning about for years.
He said: “It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country.”
Farage accused Britain and France of “colluding in their support of criminal activity” with operations in the Channel, and said: “This issue has become a scourge of modern Britain.
“Just think about the hotels, think about the houses of multiple occupancy, and not just the cost of it, but think how unfair that is, unfair to the 1.3 million British people currently on the social housing list, unfair to those who have legally made their way into the United Kingdom.
“It’s unfair and the cost, frankly, is eye watering.”
Farage: Are politicians on the side of women and children?
Nigel Farage has said the public and politicians face a choice over whether they are on the side of the safety of women and children, or backing “outdated international treaties”.
Farage told his press conference that there are “huge numbers of undocumented males who throw their passports and iPhone into the English Channel” who “do constitute a threat”.
The Reform leader said: “I suppose the growing anger in the country over the course of the last few weeks is a cultural one, in the sense that many of these young men come from countries in which women aren’t even second class citizens, and frankly, the public have now just had enough.
“And what began as a protest of mothers and concerned citizens outside the Bell Hotel in Epping has now spread right across the country, and all of it really poses one big fundamental question, whose side are you on?
“Are you on the side of women and children being safe on our streets? Or are you on the side of outdated international treaties?”
Farage: UK in total despair
Nigel Farage has said there is a “mix betweenmigrant crisis a threat to public order and rising anger” over the migration crisis in Britain.
Speaking at a press conference in Oxfordshire, the Reform leader warned that “without action” he feared “anger will grow, in fact I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order, and that is the very last thing we want”.
Senior Reform figures arrive for speech
Reform UK MPs Lee Anderson and Richard Tice at the launch of Reform UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers
JACOB KING/PA
‘Absence of meaningful action’
In a letter to the Times, David Diprose of Thame, Oxfordshire, wonders “for how much longer we can endure this absence of any meaningful action” from Sir Keir Starmer on migration and asylum.
He adds: “It will be interesting to see the reaction at his party conference, where many of his MPs will already be concerned about their future employment.”
• Read in full: Times letters — Labour under pressure over asylum claims
Whose side is Starmer on, Farage asks
Reform has pledged to not only leave the ECHR, but repeal the Human Rights Act and scrap international treaties such as the Refugee Convention.
Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “The time has come to put this country first. This is all a question of priorities.
“Is Keir Starmer on the side of the British people, national security and protecting women and girls — or is he on the side of outdated international treaties and human rights lawyers?”
Farage: Leaving ECHR will allow migrant planes to take off
TEJAS SANDHU/GETTY IMAGES
Nigel Farage, who has accused Sir Keir Starmer of siding with international courts over the British public, will outline his plans for mass deportations of illegal migrants if his party, Reform UK, wins the next general election.
He is due to make a speech this morning elaborating on his plans to deport swathes of illegal migrants.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, the Reform UK leader pledged that leaving the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) is justified under the Vienna Convention, the cornerstone of international law, because Britain is facing a “national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order”.
He added that “malign influences” that have frustrated deportations, from international treaties to human rights lawyers, would be dealt with by leaving the ECHR.
“The planes will take off, and plenty of them at that,” he wrote. “The time has come to put this country first.”
Farage is also expected to elaborate on Reform’s plan to build detention centres on military sites, which would theoretically lock up 24,000 migrants.
The Times view: Only brave asylum action will save Starmer
In new polling for The Times, voters place immigration above the economy and health as a priority.
Dangerously for Labour, 71 per cent of respondents believe the prime minister is handling the issue of asylum hotels badly, among them 56 per cent of Labour voters.
Given its relentless focus on the issue, it is no surprise that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is 22 percentage points ahead of Labour on illegal immigration. With small boats crossings surging and asylum hotels busting, Sir Keir must act or face near-certain defeat at the next election.
• Read in full: Only brave asylum action will save Keir Starmer’s credibility
Quitting ECHR ‘not in the UK’s national interest’
Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights would align Britain with Russia and Belarus, a minister has said.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, rejected a suggestion from the former Labour home secretary Lord Blunkett, who said the UK may need to ditch the international treaty to get a grip on the migration crisis.
Pennycook said: “We don’t think that’s in our national interest. It underpins a series of incredibly important agreements, including the Good Friday Agreement.
“We want to reform it in conjunction with European partners, not by withdrawing from it unilaterally or suspending it. That would put us in a club with Russia and Belarus.”
One in, one out migrant scheme goes silent
When the news broke that Britain would take asylum seekers safely from France under a new deal, Ali believed it was his chance to reunite with his family.
Several weeks later, standing on Gravelines beach, Ali, an Iranian, shrugged in defeat as he watched migrants get thrown into the water. Hundreds departed on an estimated six boats on Monday after ten days of bad weather caused a lull in crossings.
Ali, who declined to give his last name, has family in Newcastle whom he had hoped to join. He applied online to the new one in, one out scheme on August 7, but has heard nothing since.
• Read in full: Calais migrants board boats as one in, one out scheme goes silent
Yusuf insists removal of all illegal migrants ‘can be done’
It is possible to remove all illegal immigrants from the UK, Reform’s head of government efficiency has said, after Nigel Farage previously called it a “political impossibility”.
Zia Yusuf, the party’s former chairman, said Farage’s “view on that clearly has decisively changed because of the facts on the ground and the fact that we’ve now done the work that this not only can be done, it must be done”.
“The social contract in this country is hanging by a thread,” Yusuf told BBC Breakfast. He said Reform would set up a new agency called the “deportation command” and that under the plans, those who have entered the UK illegally would be detained and “not be allowed to roam around inside the community”.
“And this is a temporary programme, so regardless where they are, regardless of the accommodation, they will be gone at the end of Nigel’s first term,” he said.
Rights of Britons ‘should take priority over migrants’
A protest in Falkirk this month against immigration
JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES
Zia Yusuf said the human rights of British people would take precedence, when asked about Reform’s plans to potentially send asylum seekers back to “despotic regimes”.
He said Nigel Farage had made clear that “his priority will be the British people”.
“The human rights of British people will take precedence. The rights of mums who have been protesting across the country, including in Epping, out of fear for their daughters,” he told Good Morning Britain.
Pressed on whether it would change the public mood if an asylum seeker who was deported faced violence once sent back, he said: “I think we’ve got to be really clear about what our priority is, right?
“We’re not going to intentionally … make that happen.
“But look, unfortunately, there are despotic regimes in the world, as Nigel said very clearly in that interview, and we make no apologies for this, the British prime minister cannot be held responsible for the actions of despotic regimes all over the world.”
Reform would ‘sanction countries that refuse to take back migrants’
Countries which do not take back migrants would be sanctioned by Britain under Reform’s plans.
Zia Yusuf, the party’s former chairman, said visas would be suspended for citizens of the countries under Reform’s plan to tackle illegal migration.
He said the party would attempt to strike return deals under “an almighty foreign policy campaign”.
But he said: “If the deals can’t be done with an incentive, with the carrot, then absolutely we will use leverage. We will stop issuing visas, and if necessary, we will deploy sanctions.”
Deporting migrants ‘will save hundreds of billions of pounds’
Zia Yusuf said the cost of Reform’s deportation plan was realistic because of the money it would save in other areas.
The Reform UK head of government efficiency was challenged on the BBC’s Today programme over the scheme, which the party has estimated will cost £10 billion over five years.
Asked to explain the budget given that the latest Home Office figures suggest the asylum system costs about £5 billion a year to run, Yusuf said: “That cut doesn’t come close to the total cost of asylum and illegal migration into this country, takes nothing into account for Border Force, takes nothing into account on the strain on the NHS or welfare or Universal Credit, or ultimately a state pension.
“It doesn’t count any of those things, which is why our programme will actually, by deporting people who are in this country legally, save the British taxpayer hundreds of billions of pounds in the decades to come.”
Reform would pay Taliban to take back migrants
Afghans at a camp in northern France
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
Reform would give money to the Taliban to take back migrants, Zia Yusuf said.
He told Today on BBC Radio 4 that the party would allocate £2 billion to the Foreign Office to strike return deals with countries.
Yusuf said “we have a £2 billion budget to offer countries” and that it was not “not a drop in the ocean to Afghanistan, certainly not a drop in the ocean for Eritrea, the two countries at the top of the list of boat crossings”.
Asked if this would mean paying money to the Taliban, Yusuf said: “This country already gives £151 million a year to Afghanistan in the form of foreign aid.
“I think it’s quite reasonable. Again, British people have had enough of their goodwill being taken advantage of. The notion that Afghans topped the list in terms of foreign nationals crossing the Channel illegally, the majority of them fighting-age males into this country, while this country gives £151 million of aid to Afghanistan. We don’t think that’s fair.”
Reform ‘will not disclose planned migrant detention sites’
Reform will not reveal the areas in which it would detain migrants in case the government sells off the land, Zia Yusuf has said.
Reform’s former chairman was asked why the party would not detail the areas in which it plans to set up detention centres for those arriving in Britain.
He told Today on BBC Radio 4 the party had a long and shortlist of sites, which he said would total less than a third of a square mile in area.
But he added: “If we hand that information to the Labour government, you know full well what they will do. They will sell that land rapidly to developers or to green companies to turn them into solar farms. That is what will happen. So that’s why we’re not going to do it, we’re not going to allow the government to sabotage Nigel’s plan.”
Migrants ‘could be sent to South Atlantic island’
Migrants could be resettled on remote Ascension Island under Reform’s deportation plans, Zia Yusuf said.
Georgetown on Ascension Island
ALAMY
The former party chairman said that under Nigel Farage’s scheme, migrants who cannot be returned to their home country or to a third country would be taken to the British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic.
Asked if that was a realistic proposition given the difficulty in accessing the island, Yusuf told Good Morning Britain: “There are plenty of flights to land there all the time. There’s around 800 to 1000 inhabitants at any given point. And by the way, it was actually used as an emergency space shuttle landing point.”
Asked what would happen to those sent to the island, Yusuf said: “We will again have detention centres, and if necessary, we will resettle them there.”
Pennycook: I share frustration of residents
Anti-migrant protesters in Leeds on Friday
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
Matthew Pennycook said shutting down asylum hotels would not soothe the concerns of communities where migrants were living.
The housing minister told BBC Breakfast that an “unplanned discharge” of migrants from hotels would leave ministers scrabbling to find alternative accommodation.
He said: “We’re already looking at what contingency accommodation is available, whether that’s unused student accommodation blocks or large scale government owned sites that can be repurposed […] or we’ll have to find more dispersal accommodation in local communities.
“Now, by and large, that takes the form of houses in multiple occupation or basic accommodation in the bottom end of the private rented sector.”
He added: “It’s for this reason that while I share the frustration of residents in Epping and other communities across the country, where hotels are in use, those communities across the country will not benefit from a chaotic discharge as a result of legal rulings such as the interim injunction we’ve seen.”
Zusuf: US proves deportations work
A US air force plane carrying undocumented Indian migrants lands in India
PRAKASH SINGH/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
Zia Yusuf said that the US under President Trump had shown that deportations could serve as a deterrent against illegal migration.
The former Reform chairman told BBC Breakfast: “The other really important point to make is we now have evidence that this works from the United States, whatever people watching this programme think of President Trump.
“President Trump has cut illegal border crossings from Mexico by 97 per cent by embarking on a mass deportation programme. That is why we think the country has no choice but to do this. Otherwise, we have no borders.”
The 97 per cent figure appears to refer to a claim by the White House that “illegal alien encounters” had fallen 95 per cent compared with data from the Biden administration. Although illegal migration has dropped markedly under Trump, some US media outlets have claimed that his administration chose favourable figures to make the comparison even starker.
Reform’s deportation plan ‘could be backdated’
Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, will announce this morning plans to deport tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Britain illegally.
Zia Yusuf, Reform’s former chairman, told BBC Breakfast the scheme could be backdated at least a decade. He said: “If you have been here ten years and you have been below the radar then you need to be removed.”
Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage this month
TOLGA AKMEN/EPA
Yusuf told Good Morning Britain: “What we’ve seen is this country now is what is a national emergency, a national security emergency.”
He said 180,000 people had crossed the Channel over eight and a half years, and said: “That’s more people than stormed the beaches on D-Day, by the way, during World War Two.”
Farage ‘trying to hoodwink’ British public
Nigel Farage is attempting to “hoodwink the British public” with his deportation plan, Matthew Pennycook said.
The housing minister told Times Radio the government was taking practical steps to bring down migration in contrast to Reform’s announcement on mass deportations.
Pennycook said: “Taken as a whole, yes, the package we are confident will work. That won’t be a quick overnight fix but we’re taking the unglamorous hard-headed practical steps needed to clamp down on this crisis — in contrast, I have to say, to parties trying to hoodwink the British public with unworkable gimmicks.”
He added on Sky News: “[It] strikes me as something put together on the back of a fag packet.”
Kent barracks will continue to house migrants
A Kent military base will continue to house asylum seekers despite promises to close it next month, Matthew Pennycook confirmed.
It was reported this month that ministers would extend the use of Napier Barracks in Folkestone into 2026, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to stop housing asylum seekers on disused military sites during last year’s election.
Pennycook, the housing minister, insisted there was capacity to detain migrants crossing the Channel.
He told Times Radio: “There is capacity in the system. But as you know, the pressures that we have in the debate about hotel use and other forms of contingency accommodation. But that contingency accommodation, including hotels, including large-scale government-owned sites … for example, Napier Barracks in Kent, are there.”
Pennycook warns of ‘haphazard ejection of asylum seekers’
Large numbers of migrants will be moved into communities or will end up sleeping rough if the government is forced by the courts to close asylum hotels “at speed”, a minister has warned.
A “surge” of closures was coming within weeks, Matthew Pennycook said, but he said many migrants would need to be placed in homes in local communities if the hotels were not shut down in an “ordered and managed way”.
The housing minister said “other contingency accommodation” including unused student halls was being sought, but he told Times Radio that shutting down hotels quickly would risk “the very worst scenario where you have an unplanned, disordered, haphazard ejection of asylum seekers”.
Pennycook said this would mean “many, large numbers” of migrants moving into large shared homes in communities or ending up on the streets.
He said: “I want to be very clear […] we’ve got to have a reduction in hotel use in a managed, ordered way.”