Nigel Farage unveils his mass deportations schemeUNIONS and charities condemned Reform’s “divisive and reckless” plans today to detain and mass-deport women and children.
Party leader Nigel Farage vowed to strip asylum-seekers of their human rights and spend £2 billion securing returns deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran should he become prime minister — leading to accusations he would be paying the likes of the Taliban to take in refugees.
His speech in London sparked outrage as he confirmed that “women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained” as he pledged to deport up to 600,000 asylum-seekers in the party’s first parliament if elected to government.
Yet PM Sir Keir Starmer refused to criticise Reform UK’s proposals to broker returns deals with countries with dire human rights records.
“We’re not going to take anything off the table in terms of striking returns agreements with countries around the world,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters.
But a spokeswoman for Momentum told the Star: “Farage’s Trump-like plan for ‘mass deportation’ is divisive and reckless.
“This is the far right’s playbook: scapegoat migrants and sow division in our communities.
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Launching his party’s plans alongside senior figure Zia Yusuf, Mr Farage said that everyone who arrives on a small boat would be detained, including women and unaccompanied children.
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The party would leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 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 Britain.
They would also bring forward legislation to make everyone who arrives illegally ineligible for asylum and allow asylum-seekers to be detained until deportation.
Reform would also revoke the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture, and the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention, said Mr Yusuf.
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