Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has caught Labour and the Conservatives off guard with promises of the swiftest illegal immigrant crackdowns to date, according to political commentator Jonathan Saxty.
Writing in an opinion piece, Saxty said Reform's plan would abolish the asylum system, void all current and new applications, and make applicants immediately liable for deportation.
Reform's asylum and deportation pledges
Reform leader Nigel Farage and shadow home secretary Zia Yusuf said a Reform government would also mandate the immediate deportation of all foreign offenders regardless of prison sentence length and undertake a full population audit to identify those residing in the UK illegally.
Farage said a Reform government would apply maximum pressure to other countries to force them to accept the return of illegal immigrants, including with visa bans and tariffs on countries which refuse to comply.
Yusuf pledged to close all UK resettlement schemes, including the UK Resettlement Scheme which home secretary Shabana Mahmood reopened. Anyone who has arrived in the UK through these routes will have their right to remain revoked and be deported.
Arrival figures under Burnham
Figures show that under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the average daily arrival rate for illegal immigrants has surged by 70%. During Sir Keir Starmer's 200 days in office of 2026, just over 60 illegals arrived on average per day into the UK.
Yet in Burnham's first 80 days as PM, an average of roughly 105 is arriving every 24 hours. Put another way, Burnham has overseen illegal immigrant arrivals equivalent to over two-thirds of Starmer's total, despite having served for less than half as long.
Operation Fortress and ECHR exit
Under Reform's Operation Fortress, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines would intercept small boats and return them to safe country France. The policy would see asylum hotels closed and Britain leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to remove all barriers to deportation.
Saxty argued the policy is not controversial, noting Australia stopped its small boat crisis years ago and no government ever restarted the madness. Across Asia, island states like Japan, Singapore and Taiwan have no illegal immigrant crisis since their governments protect their borders and people.
Reform's pledge also goes beyond Tory plans. While the Conservatives say they will leave the ECHR and stop the boats, Kemi Badenoch and the vast majority of her team served in the very Conservative government which oversaw the immigration explosion and had 14 years to leave the ECHR yet never did.
Saxty said open door immigration under both the Conservatives and Labour is making Britain – like the rest of the Western world – both more dangerous and poorer. He concluded it is no time for half measures and Britain needs a correction.
