Nigel Farage today unveiled Reform's plan to deport around 400,000 migrants if it wins power, including handing them up to £1,000 to leave Britain. Anyone found to have entered illegally via small boats or otherwise, or overstayed their visa and subsequently claimed asylum, or come from a country now deemed safe, would be liable to have their status revoked and be deported. But those deemed undesirable will be given 'a short time to leave the country of their own accord' before risking being picked up and removed by a planned new UK Deportation Command. Paying 400,000 people £1,000 to leave would cost taxpayers £400million, plus the cost of flights, but Reform claims the scheme would save taxpayers £14.3billion over the course of the next parliament.

Mr Farage also warned that the party would have to overturn the Human Rights Act before doing anything else, which will require it to win a stable Commons majority, to allow it to avoid legal blocks. A new superpoll by More in Common last week suggested it could fall short by a single seat, potentially leaving it reliant on support from the Tories or other sources to push it though. The announcement comes after 602 people crossed the Channel on small boats on Saturday, making it this year's second busiest day for crossings and bringing the total number of arrivals in 2026 to more than 6,000.

Mr Farage suggested he had already done a deal with the Taliban regime to return people to Afghanistan. He also suggested the plan would take as much inspiration from Barack Obama's migrant policies as Donald Trump's. Meanwhile Mr Yusuf said there would be no need for a major increase in detention facilities that could be expensive for taxpayers, instead envisioning a conveyor belt of people leaving the UK. In response to the announcement, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said a Conservative government would deport illegal migrants 'within a week of arrival'.

He said: 'The Conservatives have already proposed a detailed borders plan to pull out of the ECHR and completely ban asylum claims by illegal immigrants. 'The Conservatives' 'removals force' will deport 150,000 immigrants each year with no right to be here. 'Reform is slowing catching up with our ideas, but without the detail that will ensure it works in practice.' Will Forster, the Liberal Democrat immigration and asylum spokesman, accused Reform of 'churning out hostile, headline-grabbing' plans that will 'do absolutely nothing to tackle our broken asylum system'.

He added: 'The backlog of cases is already sky high thanks to the mess the Conservatives left us in. Reviewing five years worth of asylum grants is an impractical farce that will just slow down the process even more.' The Liberal Democrats had called for the Government to set up Nightingale processing centres, to clear the asylum backlog within six months, he said, so those with a right to stay could 'get on with their lives and support themselves, and those without can be swiftly returned'.