Nigel Farage wants you to believe Britain could deport 288,000 people annually. That’s nearly 800 a day – 30 times the current rate of asylum-related returns. This is a fantasy concealing his real aim: to destroy public trust in democratic institutions, crush legal constraints and turn fear into power. Mr Farage isn’t trying to fix the asylum system. In fact, he wants to dismantle the political framework necessary to achieve that goal: the treaties, parliamentary conventions and centuries of legal protections. In their place, a Reform government would operate by executive fiat cloaked in nationalist rhetoric.
“Operation Restoring Justice” is a louder, more extreme version of Rishi Sunak’s failed 2023 strategy to detain everyone, deport everyone and process no one. This led to a backlog of unheard asylum claims, spiralling hotel costs and public anger – with no drop in small boat crossings. But Mr Farage wants to go further. He pledges to withdraw from the European convention on human rights (ECHR); repeal the Human Rights Act to remove legal routes of appeal; disapply the UN refugee convention for five years; and exit anti-torture and anti-trafficking treaties.
European Union countries have offered a degree of voluntary repatriation or coordinated returns, but they are circumscribed by legal frameworks and human rights standards. By comparison, Reform UK is proposing that the country leaves the international legal order altogether. This is the British version of Trumpism – whipping up anger with inflammatory rhetoric so that populist grievances justify the removal of legal and moral constraints on state power.
The practical flaws are obvious. The UK has just 2,200 detention places. Mr Farage wants 24,000. The record of detention centres is an unhappy one. Deportation relies on returns deals, but none exist with most countries people are fleeing, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan. Nor is France likely to cooperate if the ECHR is declared void. But Mr Farage doesn’t need a real plan. He needs a story. His is that Britain is being invaded by “fighting-age men” who are threatening “our women and girls”. There are familiar tropes about the elite protecting foreigners, not Britons, while “activist” lawyers and foreign courts hold the country hostage. Mr Farage is hawking resentment under the cover of a reset.
Asked whether deporting people to possible torture or death bothered him, Mr Farage said yes, but what really bothers him is women’s safety in Britain. It’s a telling deflection. Reform UK’s leader didn’t raise such concerns until it served his agenda. This is a zero-sum moral framing: protect them or us. Faragism is the opportunistic politics of outrage masquerading as principle. Shamefully, populist media laps it up. Labour must understand the threat for what it is. This is not a policy contest. It is an attack on democratic norms – the kind that paves the way for repressive rule by and for economic elites, under the guise of national restoration. That’s Donald Trump’s game. It’s Mr Farage’s too.
To beat it, Labour must offer a moral and institutional counterattack, pairing ethical clarity with policy competence. This means faster asylum decisions, legal routes, credible returns agreements and a clear line that Britain does not deport those fleeing persecution back into harm’s way. Mr Farage’s false choice is between control and compassion, when Britain needs both. It’s a provocation. But provocation can work in politics unless others step up to show the country what real leadership looks like.
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