Reform UK pledges Trump-style deportations despite blowback in US
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Reform is hoping a laser focus on immigration will maintain its commanding poll lead over both the ruling Labour Party and the main opposition Conservatives.
PHOTO: EPA
LONDON – Reform UK called levels of immigration a “national emergency” and an “invasion,” employing US President Donald Trump-style rhetoric that is running into public opposition in the US.
In a policy document on Feb 23, Mr Nigel Farage’s insurgent right-wing party vowed to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and pursue “mass deportations” if it wins the next general election.
A pledge to deliver “net negative migration” by deporting all irregular migrants would see 600,000 returned over a five-year parliamentary term, a number equivalent to almost 1 per cent of the UK population.
Reform is hoping a laser focus on immigration will maintain its commanding poll lead over both the ruling Labour Party and the main opposition Conservatives.
In the US, however, polls consistently show the public has soured on Mr Trump’s immigration policies.
Almost six in 10 Americans said they disapproved of his handling of the issue in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Feb 22.
A 2024 election promise to crack down on illegal immigration has turned into a political liability for the president amid aggressive enforcement efforts marked by raids of homes and workplaces that have rounded up more than the violent criminals he pledged to target.
The fatal shootings of two US citizens by immigration agents in January in Minneapolis raised the complaints about his approach to a fever pitch.
Mr Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman, unveiled the party’s policies in a press conference in the coastal town of Dover in a speech littered with Trumpian references to immigrants as criminals.
“How many more people must die at the hands of those who should never have been in our country in the first place? How many more victims families must be devastated in this way when their rights are placed beneath those of criminals?” Mr Yusuf said.
“Some have already called our plan draconian. Our response: Britain is being invaded.”
Reform would immediately leave the ECHR, build facilities to detain an extra 24,000 migrants and establish a “UK Deportation Command”
It would also legislate to prevent judges from “intervening” in deportations.
Reform’s plans raised concerns among legal experts and migrant rights organisations.
Mr Adrian Berry, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said efforts by Reform to limit judges’ powers would be “contrary to our traditions” as judicial oversight of government action “is a cornerstone of the rule of law.”
Ms Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre which supports exploited migrant workers, said Reform’s proposals for an ICE-style UK Deportation Command inspired “a sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart, money being wasted, and the government turning against its own people.”
Asked about the parallels between Reform’s deportation agenda and Mr Trump’s ICE agency, Mr Yusuf said he “would not expect UK Deportation Command to need to carry weapons.”
“This notion that we’re going to have the same issues that came sharply into focus internationally as a result of Trump’s ICE programme, that’s just not true,” Mr Yusuf said.
Most immigration to Britain is through legal means, such as people arriving on work visas.
Reform has already unveiled plans to abolish the residency status for legal migrants in favour of a renewable work visa, limited to a narrow range of industries.
However, Mr Yusuf’s speech was focused on those who have arrived through irregular means to seek asylum – mostly on small boats across the English Channel.
More than 41,000 made the perilous journey in 2025, despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s promise to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers facilitating the trade.
Net migration is already plummeting, largely reflecting curbs introduced by the previous Conservative government, and some experts say it could turn negative over the course of 2026.
Several economists have raised concerns about the effect this could have on the labour market, with sectors such as caring for the elderly still struggling to fill vacancies and the economy reliant on foreign workers to keep growing without triggering higher inflation.
Reform has now begun to build policies to prove it’s a credible contender for government with a general election due by mid-2029 at the latest.
Speaking in the Feb 23 press conference, Mr Farage said Reform’s policies were being informed by “the Judeo-Christian culture upon which everything in our civilisation was built.”
He and Mr Yusuf, who is Muslim, referenced “Christian” or “Christianity” 16 times in the press conference.
Senior members of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell and the Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft, have in the past criticised Reform’s anti-immigration plans.
Mr Farage said this pushback from Christian leaders showed “why the Church of England’s gone to the dogs.”
Asked whether they misunderstood their own religion, Mr Farage said they had “got a rather twisted view of what their flock in this country actually want them to do.” BLOOMBERG
