Britainupdated 1h ago2 min read
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Pledges To Suspend UK Asylum System For Up To Five Years
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Reform UK pledges to suspend UK's asylum system for up to five years if elected. All new asylum applications rejected and existing ones voided, with claimants deported.
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Farage suspends asylum
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced plans to suspend the UK asylum system for up to five years if his party wins the next national election, with all new asylum applications rejected and existing applications voided. Reform said it would scrap the asylum tribunal system and declare the roughly 90,000 pending asylum applications void, while failed applicants would be returned either to their home countries or a safe third country. Reform also pledged to end legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes, while exempting Ukrainians who fled to Britain after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Reform said it would pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention to prevent legal challenges to its plans. Farage framed the move as a response to a “national security emergency,” saying the UK is “now living in a national security emergency” and that “We want to get back to being a normal country.”
Labour and Refugee Council
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson accused Farage of “casting around for more and more extreme policies” as he tried to deal with “scandals, police investigations and a growing challenge from Restore.” Labour said the proposals were a “clear sign of desperation and weakness,” while the Refugee Council branded them “unworkable.” Refugee Council chief policy analyst Jon Featonby said “closing our asylum system would cause chaos,” arguing that “Desperate people would still arrive on our shores” but would be driven underground.
Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said he would “have to embark on the biggest mass deportation programme this country has ever seen” if made home secretary, while adding “we will not be returning people to harm.” Euronews reported that Reform accused Labour of having “totally lost control” of the UK’s borders, while Labour said small boat crossing figures had continued to come down in recent years.
Detention, deportation, and routes
Reform said it would create a specialised agency focusing on the detention and deportation of those in the UK illegally, and it said 24,000 to 28,000 detention spaces would be needed. Reform also proposed banning British visas for countries such as Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan if they refuse to allow deportation flights to land in their country. Reform said it would consider asset freezes and potential tariffs on goods and services for non-compliance, and it also pledged to use tariffs to force countries to take back migrants.
The Conservatives said the plans “largely copy” their own policies, while shadow home secretary Chris Philp insisted only the Tories had a credible borders plan and pledged to remove 750,000 illegal immigrants within five years. The Refugee Council and other campaigners warned that the approach would leave refugees vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, with Louise Calvey of Asylum Matters calling it “recycling the same failed ideas” used by the previous Conservative government.