Nigel Farage has rowed back on plans to deport hundreds of thousands of people in the first five years of a Reform UK government, saying this would now not include women and children.
The Reform leader unveiled plans on Tuesday to detain and deport up to 600,000 people with no right to be in the UK, including anyone who arrived in Britain after crossing the Channel in a small boat.
Asked whether this would include women and children, Mr Farage said: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival, will be detained.”
He added that he accepted that “how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue”, while senior Reform figure Zia Yusuf said “phase one” would focus on adults and unaccompanied children would be sent back “towards the latter half of that five years”.
But on Wednesday, Mr Farage insisted to a press conference in Broxburn, West Lothian that he had been “very, very clear” that the party was focused on “illegal males” and “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
He added: “The news reports that said that after my conference yesterday were wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Asked whether this meant women and children would be “exempt”, he said: “I didn’t say exempt forever, but at this stage it’s not part of our plan for the next five years.”
Reform’s plans, which would also see Mr Farage attempt to strike returns deals with Iran and Taliban-governed Afghanistan, have been attacked refugee groups and some politicians.
Care4Calais’s chief executive Steve Smith said the majority of people “don’t want to see women and children placed in detention centres, denied their rights to safety”, while Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper accused Reform of proposing a “Taliban tribute” that would see taxpayers’ money used to fund “the persecution of Afghan women and children”.
Commenting on Mr Farage’s U-turn, a Lib Dem spokesperson said: “It appears Nigel Farage has taken as much time reading his own plan as he does his constituents’ emails. Reform’s plans do not even stand up to the scrutiny of their own leader.
“His band of plastic patriots are taking the country for fools.”
But Labour has focused its criticism on the practicality of the proposals, with Downing Street refusing to rule out seeking return agreements with autocratic regimes.
On Wednesday, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds declined to criticise Mr Farage for describing small boat crossings as an “invasion”.
He told an event in Westminster hosted by The Spectator magazine: “We can all talk about language, but I don’t think it is about particular words we want to use, or particular slogans we want to use, or indeed about offering empty solutions, which is what Nigel Farage was doing yesterday, that’s going to solve this.”
In his own press conference, Mr Farage said it was “really interesting” that “people aren’t questioning the need for something radical to be done”, pointing out that Sir Keir Starmer “hasn’t attacked me on the idea that we should be deporting people that come illegally”.
The Government’s reluctance to question Mr Farage’s language around the issue has brought criticism from some figures on the left, including Independent MP Diane Abbott.
Ms Abbott, who lost the Labour whip for the second time in July, said it was “unsurprising” and accused the Prime Minister of “trying to copy Farage all summer”.
In a post on social media, she added: “All those who stand for decency, for human rights and against racism will find their voice. But they can expect zero from Starmer.”
