Reform UK retreats from child migrant deportations

Reform UK appears to have rowed back from the idea it could remove children from the country under its newly announced mass deportation policy.

On Tuesday, Zia Yusuf, a key architect of the party's plan, suggested it could deport unaccompanied minors in the "latter half" of the proposed five-year scheme.

But leader Nigel Farage has now said this was not currently part of Reform's plans for a potential first term in office.

The party has suggested it would be prepared to deport 600,000 people under the policy, if it wins the next general election.

Reform says the scheme would target more than 650,000 adults it estimates are currently living illegally in the UK, as well as future asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Central to the proposals is a plan to "disapply" international treaties restricting the government's ability to send people to unsafe countries, including the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast ahead of launching the policy alongside Farage, former party chair Yusuf said the "first phase" of the plan would target adults without children, particularly single men.

Deportation of unaccompanied children could then take place "towards the latter half" of the five-year period, he added.

At a press conference to launch the scheme, Farage said women and children arriving illegally would be among those detained, whilst acknowledging the treatment of children was a "complicated and difficult issue".

U-turn accusations

But speaking at a further news briefing on Wednesday, he said the party was "not even discussing women and children at this stage" as part of the deportation plan.

Pressed on whether this meant they would be exempt, he replied: "At this stage, it's not part of our plan for the next five years."

However, he later clarified Reform would still look to deport women coming to the UK without children.

The party still needed to "work out the best thing to do" with those who do, he added, whilst specifying that female migrants with children already in the UK were not "top of our list" for deportation.

The Liberal Democrats accused Farage of making a U-turn, adding that Reform's proposals "do not even stand up to the scrutiny of their own leader".

Speaking to reporters, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Farage hadn't "done the homework" ahead of his announcement, adding it vindicated her approach of taking more time to "get the policies right".

Detention plans

Reform's proposals would mark a change in the scale of deportations made by the UK. There were 10,652 asylum-related returns in the year to June, according to Home Office data.

The party, which currently has just four MPs but is riding high in national opinion polls, has promised to increase detention capacity by 24,000 within 18 months if it wins power at the next election, which must take place by 2029.

Reform has said it would build a series of new removal centres in "remote parts of the country", although it has refused to set out particular locations.

It says the new centres would be "basic but not punitive", containing prefabricated two-person rooms, on-site medical facilities, and canteen catering.

It has earmarked £2bn to persuade countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea to take back illegal migrants, with British overseas territories such as Ascension Island used as a "fallback" if people awaiting deportation could not be sent elsewhere.

A record 28,288 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year so far, 46% more than by the same date in 2024.