Reform UK is set to unveil a hardline immigration plan that includes creating an ICE-style deportation agency and scrapping indefinite leave to remain (ILR), party spokesperson Zia Yusuf will announce on Monday. The proposals aim to deport up to 288,000 people annually using five flights a day, and expand stop-and-search powers.
Yusuf will also call for leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), banning the conversion of churches into mosques, and refocusing the Prevent deradicalisation programme on Islamist extremism. He will blame former Prime Minister Boris Johnson for increasing net migration and argue that ILR allows 'a lifetime of living off the British taxpayer'.
Labour has condemned the plans as 'divisive' and 'fundamentally un-British', warning they target people who have followed the rules and built lives in the UK. Labour chair Anna Turley said the policies are 'a direct attack on settled families'. Labour has proposed its own changes to ILR, including extending the eligibility period from five to ten years.
Experts have questioned the feasibility and cost of the proposed UK Deportation Command, which would require a tenfold increase in detention capacity from the current 2,500 spaces. Yusuf insists the plan is necessary to restore sovereignty and security, saying 'the social contract has been shattered'.
