Nigel Farage has set out his plan to end prison overcrowding, and one key moment made it clear why a Reform government would be different from all the rest. Speaking at a London press conference to activists and the media, he outlined proposals to send more than 10,000 foreign criminals currently in UK jails to foreign countries.
The Plan to Deport Foreign Criminals
The first choice would be to send them home, but if their countries refuse to take them back, a Reform government would pay a country such as El Salvador to house them in specially-built jails instead. It may sound expensive, but it would cost half as much as keeping them in British prisons. This would also end the problem of prison overcrowding at home, which has caused the current Labour government to release prisoners early, including potentially the killers of PC Andrew Harper.
The Key Moment
However, there might be one snag. A journalist asked about legal challenges, pointing out that the last Conservative government's attempt to send asylum seekers to Rwanda had failed because the courts kept blocking deportations. The journalist said: "That means you end up clogging the courts with people taking legal action against this. There are people working in the courts every day who say, 'you are creating a problem with this'."
The answer came from Mr Farage's colleague Zia Yusuf, Reform's foreign affairs spokesman, and showed why Reform is not the same as the other parties. He said: "I get that. Our inbox is full of people saying you are going to clog up the legal system." But he added: "One of the really cool things that His Majesty's government can do is to change the law." That included leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, he said. "It can be done and it must be done."
Reform's Determination
The key point isn't just that Reform would take the UK out of the European Convention. It's also that they really are determined to carry out policies that the British people have voted for, if they win the general election. Mr Yusuf is correct to say governments can change the law, but he might also have added that they can make changes if their MPs let them. The problem Labour faces is that its own MPs oppose serious attempts to control immigration. The Conservatives have had the same problem in the past, which is why party leader Kemi Badenoch is being ruthless about blocking people who disagree with her from standing as Tory Parliamentary candidates.
But Reform might actually do what it is promising to do. If you don't like their plans, you're entitled to your opinion and can vote for someone else. But if, at the next election, UK voters do choose to make Nigel Farage Prime Minister, then this time they may actually get what they voted for.
