Nigel Farage to unveil plans for mass deportations if Reform UK wins next general election – UK politics live

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. Nigel Farage will outline Reform’s plans to tackle small boats crossings this morning, setting out his party’s stall for government if it wins the next general election, expected in 2029.

The Reform party leader has claimed that his plans will lead to the “mass deportation” of hundreds of thousands of migrants and will prevent anyone entering illegally from ever being able to claim asylum.

A central tenant of Farage’s platform is disapplying swathes of international law to make removals easier. How tenable these plans are remains to be seen as the party would likely face many legal obstacles.

Reform is promising to leave the European court of human rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and disapply international treaties like the Refugee Convention.

Writing in the Telegraph, Farage said:

No longer will these malign influences be allowed to frustrate deportations. The planes will take off, and plenty of them at that.

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Starmer on the side of the British people, national security and protecting women and girls – or is he on the side of outdated international treaties and human rights lawyers?

Reform only have four MPs but have had an outsized impact on Labour’s stance on illegal migration, pushing them to adopt ever more right-wing positions and intensify its rhetoric on the issue.

The government has set out its plan to close asylum hotels by the end of the parliament and the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a “one in, one out” returns deal with France last month.

But there is a rising political urgency around the issue as Reform continues to lead polls and asylum hotel demonstrations spread across the country.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Zia Yusuf, head of Reform’s government efficiency department, insisted it is possible to remove all illegal immigrants from the UK despite Farage having previously called it a “political impossibility”.

“(Nigel Farage) said it was a political impossibility. His 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,” he said. “The social contract in this country is hanging by a thread.”

Yusuf said Reform UK would set up a new agency called the “deportation command” and that under the plans those who have entered the UK illegal would be detained and “not be allowed to roam around inside the community”.

He added:

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.