UK politics latest: Reform condemned over ‘sadistic’ plan for ICE-style UK immigration agency – UK Times

Reform have pledged to deliver net negative immigration but how realistic would that be to achieve? Home affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft reports:

Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, explains that it is not impossible, but “in today’s world it would require significant new immigration restrictions”.

She explained that the easiest leavers to pull to reduce migration are visa routes that are the “most economically beneficial, namely highly skilled people coming on work visas”.

She added: “A UK government could probably push net migration into negative territory if it ended all work visas.

This includes work visas going to people whose high earnings mean they make large net contributions to public finances over the course of their lifetimes.”

If that wasn’t desirable then “another route to sustained zero or negative net migration would be to end the asylum system”, Dr Sumption added.

“It is difficult to predict how likely this scenario is in practice, because it depends on whether the government was both willing and able to cooperate with countries like Afghanistan and Eritrea to send migrants and refugees back there—or to set up large-scale external camps in a third country or British territory. In practice, the government might well remain quite reliant on other countries’ willingness to cooperate with the UK.”

Net migration has fallen 78 per cent in two years – down to 204,000 in the year ending June 2025. Fewer non-EU nationals have been coming to the UK for work and study, however experts think that falling net migration may not be sustained in the long term.

Dr Sumption predicts that a government taking office in 2029 is likely to inherit rising migration

Zia Yusuf said he backs a ban on “all face coverings in public” when asked by a reporter if he supported a Burka ban.

Last year, Mr Yusuf briefly quit the party after he described a question to the Prime Minister about a ban on burkas as “dumb”.

He told the press conference: “I personally support a ban on all face coverings in public… that’s actually a piece of legislation that has multiple bonuses to it because it’s going to aid integrations, it’s also going to help people feel safe.”

Chris Phlip MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said:“Reform’s home affairs spokesperson has nothing new to offer beyond copying and pasting Conservative plans.

“Reform are a one man band. Only the Conservatives have a credible plan to control our borders through leaving the ECHR, deporting all illegal immigrants within a week and banning asylum claims from illegal entrants”.

Mr Yusuf says: “We’re going to deport hundreds of thousands of people across our first term.”

On that timeline, he adds: “It’s going to depend on some degree how quickly we will be able to pass the legislation and get that team staffed.

“Number one if you are in this country illegally, you should not expect to stay – you will be deported.

“Number two, this programme will the biggest mass deportation programme in this country’s history.”

Regarding Cardiff and Sheffield’s status as ‘cities of sanctuary’ for asylum seekers and refugees, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf suggest Reform would change that. The two speak about launching their Welsh manifesto in the near future.

Responding to a question from The Independent’s David Maddox, Mr Farage says: “If we win the Welsh parliament elections, Cardiff will no longer continue to be a city of sanctuary.”

When asked about Reform’s plans to give churches listed status, the party leader says more people may attend churches if “we had rather better Archbishops of Canterbury”.

Political editor David Maddox reports from Dover:

It was always a question over why Zia Yusuf would square his past attacks on ex-home secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration Robert Jenrick before they defected to Reform UK.

Answering questions at the press conference in Dover, Mr Yusuf said he had “spoken to former minister including those who are now in our party” before putting his draconian policies together.

“They said that you can’t do what is necessary without the support of the prime minister,” he said, pointing to Mr Farage.

So now we know that they are there to blame Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak for their long record of failures in dealing with irregular migration.

The party plans to create a new “Trump inspired” deportation agency with the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time, modelled on the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the US.

Zia Yusuf as said the rights of British citizens are being placed “beneath those of criminals” because of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Speaking at a press conference in Dover, Mr Yusuf listed what he said were examples of judges blocking the deportation of illegal migrants who had committed crimes.

“How many more people must die at the hands of those who should never have been in our country in the first place?” he said.

“How many more victims’ families must be devastated in this way when their rights are placed beneath those of criminals?

“The answer is none, Vote Reform. We will leave the ECHR and end this madness.”