Reform vows to shut UK asylum system for five years - as Farage poses in front of 43ft replica migrant dinghy
By CHRISTIAN CALGIE, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE
Published: | Updated:
Nigel Farage vowed to shut down Britain's asylum system for five years if he is elected as prime minister as he posed in front of a 43ft replica migrant dinghy.
The monster prop, unveiled to hammer home that Britain no longer merely faces a 'small boat crisis', was front and centre at the Reform UK leader's press conference focused on ending migration into the UK.
Mr Farage was dwarfed by the replica inflatable, which Reform said was a full-scale model of the boat used to bring a record 230 migrants to Britain in a single Channel crossing in August.
He pledged to suspend the asylum system entirely for the first term of a Reform UK government, with 90,000 outstanding claimants being automatically refused and deported – including women and children.
His government would also close official resettlement schemes, such as those for Afghan refugees, which brought in nearly half a million people between 2015 and 2022.
Reform said it would conduct a full assessment of those previously granted refugee status, revoking it from those who were granted it after arriving via small boat, or whose country of origin is now deemed safe.
The party's policies to tackle asylum, illegal migrants and foreign-born criminals would engage every facet of the British state to either manually deport those who should not be in the country, or force them to go home voluntarily.
Mr Farage insisted that Reform's latest migrant crackdown pledge is not 'radical or crazy', but a return to what any 'normal country that puts security at the top of the agenda' should be expected to do.
Nigel Farage vowed to shut down Britain's asylum system for five years if he is elected as prime minister as he posed in front of a 43ft replica migrant dinghy
Following the RAF Fairford incident last month, Mr Farage said he had been proved right after warning that foreign enemies such as Iran would use the Channel migrants crisis to undermine Britain's security.
He said: 'I warned Parliament more than once that I had intelligence that the Iranian regime was using the small boats crisis to smuggle their operatives in the room. Do you know the response I got from the Labour benches? They shouted, 'Shame on you! Shame on you!' Well, shame on them.
'This Government is not doing its job; it is not protecting the national security of this country, and of course, once again, sadly, I've been proved to be right.'
Reform's policy dossier said any country refusing to accept deportation flights would be threatened with visa bans, tariffs on goods, or even bans on the country's airlines using British airspace. It singled out Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan.
Mr Farage referenced the recent row after Pakistan refused to accept the deportation of Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed. He warned: 'I'm sorry, Pakistan, but you need to take back that man now living freely in the north-west of England.
'If that means, in the case of Pakistan, that we have to bring in visa bans, we'll do so. If it means threatening Pakistani nationals' assets in London, we will do so. If it means introducing flight bans, we will do so. And in extremis, we'd even look at tariffs. People will accept their bad guys back.'
The monster prop, unveiled to hammer home that Britain no longer merely faces a 'small boat crisis', was front and centre at the Reform UK leader's press conference focused on ending migration into the UK
Other strategies announced at the Reform event in Hythe, Kent, included visa checks during food hygiene inspections at restaurants.
Neighbours will also be encouraged to report suspected incidents of 'invisible' illegal house-sharing, while local councils will be urged to use aerial imaging.
Home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf pledged that a Reform government 'will point every organ of the state in service of one people, and one people alone: the British people'.
Labour chairman Bridget Phillipson said Reform's announcement was 'a clear sign of desperation and weakness' to distract from the ongoing questions about donations.
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