Farage vows mass deportations to tackle small boats

Reform UK is pledging mass deportations of asylum seekers who arrive in the UK in small boats.

The party's leader - Nigel Farage - has told The Times that there is a massive crisis in the UK, which threatens national security and could lead to public disorder.

Farage's Reform may have only four MPs but they are riding high in the polls - not least because of frustration over record-high small boats crossings.

We now have more of an idea of what the party would do to tackle the issue.

Labour has called the plan pie in the sky. The Conservatives said they would deliver a credible plan that would work in practice.

Farage tells the Times that if people know they will be detained and deported they will stop coming "very quickly".

He wants to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and ban small boats arrivals from claiming asylum.

People could be detained on disused RAF bases and returned to countries like Afghanistan and Eritrea if agreements were reached.

Many of these measures could face legal challenges but Reform's leadership is convinced radical action is needed.

"The aim of this legislation is mass deportations," Farage told The Times.

"We have a massive crisis in Britain. It is not only posing a national security threat but it's leading to public anger that frankly is not very far away from disorder.

"There is only one way to stop people coming into Britain and that is to detain them and deport them."

The government faces growing pressure over immigration, with a record 111,000 asylum applications made to the UK during the year to June.

Figures released by the Home Office this week said that despite increased applications, spending on asylum in the UK was down by 12%.

The total stood at £4.76bn in the year ending March 2025, down from £5.38bn the previous year.

Small boat arrivals saw a 38% increase from the previous year, with more than half of those arrivals from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that Labour had "inherited a broken immigration and asylum system that the previous government left in chaos".

She said the new government had strengthened immigration controls and "sharply increased" enforcement and returns.

Respnding to the Reform leader's proposals, Angela Eagle, Labour's border security minister, said: "Nigel Farage is simply plucking numbers out of the air, another pie in the sky policy from a party that will say anything for a headline."

"We are getting a grip of the broken asylum system," she added. "Making sure those with no right to be here are removed or deported."

The Conservatives said Reform UK was recycling their ideas.

"This big reveal is just recycling many ideas the Conservatives have already announced," said shadow home secretary Chris Philp.

"Nigel Farage previously claimed mass deportations were impossible, and now he says it's his policy," Philp added. "Who knows what he'll say next."