Reform UK would pay the Taliban money to take back migrants who entered Britain illegally, Zia Yusuf has admitted.
The former party chairman said he thinks it is “quite reasonable” for the British government to hand money to the regime in order to agree a returns agreement with the country.
It comes as Nigel Farage prepares to unveil Reform UK’s bid to tackle illegal migration with an overhaul of human rights law and mass deportations.
The Reform leader has pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and scrap the Human Rights Act and replace them with a British Bill of Rights, which would only apply to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in the UK.
Those who come to the UK on small boats and other unauthorised routes would meanwhile have no right to claim asylum.
Reform would aim to house them in facilities at old military bases, before they were deported to their country of origin, or to third countries such as Rwanda or Albania.
Asked about how returns would work in practice, Mr Yusuf – who leads Reform’s ‘department of government efficiency’, modelled on Donald Trump’s ‘DOGE’ – told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, we have a £2bn budget to offer countries.”
When it was put to him the £2bn would be a drop in the ocean to some countries, Mr Yusuf responded: “It’s not a drop in the ocean to Afghanistan, certainly not a drop in the ocean for Eritrea, the two countries that are top of the list of boat crossings.”
Asked whether he was talking about handing money to the Taliban, he said: “This country already gives £151m a year to Afghanistan in the form of foreign aid. I think it’s quite reasonable.”
When it was put to him that the government is not handing that money to the Taliban to take people back, he said: “I think it is quite reasonable. Again, British people have had enough of their goodwill being taken advantage of.
“The notion that Afghans topped the list in terms of foreign nationals crossing the Channel illegally, the majority of them fighting age males into this country, while this country gives £151m of aid to Afghanistan. We don’t think that’s fair.”
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook dismissed Reform’s plans as something that had been “put together on the back of a fag packet”.
Speaking to Sky News, he added: “This government has secured returns agreements, including groundbreaking pilot agreement with France. We’re seeking to secure others, but, frankly, the idea that Nigel Farage and the circus that is Reform can come in and secure those agreements, I think is for the birds”.
But Mr Yusuf insisted the party’s plan to tackle illegal migration is realistic after they estimated it will cost £10 billion over a five-year period.
Asked to explain the budget when latest Home Office figures suggest the UK’s asylum system currently costs around £5bn a year to run, Mr Yusuf said: “That’s just the Home Office number. That cut doesn’t come close to the total cost of asylum and illegal migration into this country, takes nothing into account for Border Force, takes nothing into account on the strain on the NHS or welfare or Universal Credit, or ultimately a state pension.
“It doesn’t count any of those things, which is why our program will actually, by deporting people who are in this country legally, save the British taxpayer hundreds of billions of pounds in the decades to come.”
