Reform UK has announced plans to create a new deportation agency modelled on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the capacity to deport up to 288,000 people annually. The party's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, is set to outline the proposals in a speech on Monday, which also include scrapping indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa with a high salary threshold.
Under the plans, a new body called UK Deportation Command would have the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time and operate five deportation flights per day. Yusuf will also call for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and impose a legal duty on the home secretary to remove illegal migrants. The party would also ban the conversion of churches into mosques, expand stop-and-search powers, and refocus the Prevent deradicalisation programme on Islamist extremism.
Labour has condemned the proposals as divisive and un-British. Labour chair Anna Turley said the plans were 'a direct attack on settled families' and accused Reform of seeking to deport people who have followed the rules and built their lives in the UK. Currently, ILR holders make up only about 2.7% of universal credit claimants, with at least a third in employment.
Yusuf will blame former prime minister Boris Johnson for rising net migration, claiming he 'threw open our borders'. He argues that granting ILR leads to 'a lifetime of living off the British taxpayer'. Labour has also proposed changes to ILR, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood suggesting extending the eligibility period from five to ten years.
