Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf has insisted his party’s plans to tackle illegal migration are feasible, saying deporting asylum seekers en masse is “much more realistic operationally” than people have been led to believe.
Reform UK is set to unveil its plans, including an overhaul of human rights law and mass deportations, which a minister criticised as “unworkable gimmicks” on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Government is preparing to return the first small boat arrivals to France under its one in, one out deal with the country.
Senior Reform UK figure Mr Yusuf was asked why the party had U-turned after leader Nigel Farage said last year that deporting hundreds of thousands of people from the UK was a “political impossibility”.
“The reason why Nigel has changed his mind is, number one, we’ve done the work and we’ve worked out that actually it is much more realistic operationally than people have been led to believe,” Mr Yusuf told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
His party is pledging that if in government, it would scale up detention capacity for asylum seekers to 24,000 and secure deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran to return migrants to their countries.
They would seek to emulate what has happened in Germany, which sent back 81 Afghan nationals with criminal records earlier this year, on a greater scale.
“How many more flights do you need? You’re not talking about, we’re not about millions of Afghans here, right? We’re talking about … the low tens of thousands, right? That can absolutely be done,” he said.
He also pointed to the new Florida detention centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” which was designed to hold 3,000 people and built in eight days.
He told BBC Breakfast Reform UK’s plans were for a “temporary programme” and that anyone detained in those centres will be “gone at the end of Nigel’s (Farage) first term” as prime minister.
Mr Yusuf said “phase one” would focus on adults and that unaccompanied children would be sent back “probably … towards the latter half of that five years”.
He was asked about Reform UK’s plans to potentially send asylum seekers back to “despotic regimes”.
“The human rights of British people will take precedence. The rights of mums who have been protesting across the country, including in Epping, out of fear for their daughters,” Mr Yusuf told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook questioned how feasible the plans were, saying the idea of securing returns agreements with countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea is “for the birds”.
“And what happens if returns agreements are not secured with Eritrea or Sudan? Where do the planes go? What does Reform think is going to happen in the case of Iran, a country that we’re currently sanctioning, they’re just going to agree a returns agreement?” he told Sky News.
He said he appreciated that communities across the country are “frustrated at the pace of change”, speaking to ITV.
“But this isn’t a problem we were going to solve overnight. It’s not a problem that any party could solve overnight.
“That’s why the unworkable gimmicks being pushed by reform don’t stack up, because it is a difficult problem,” he said.
He confirmed that the first small boats arrivals have been detained to send back to France under the one in, one out migrant deal.
“As you rightly say, the first illegal migrants have been detained under our groundbreaking returns pilot with the French, and we expect to see removals to France in the coming weeks,” he told Times Radio.
He said it was “early days” for the scheme but that the Government was confident it would act as a deterrent as part of wider plans.
The Times had reported that more than 100 migrants in detention, including some arrested over the weekend, could be among the first to be sent back to France under the scheme.
A record 28,288 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year so far, after 212 people did so on Sunday in four boats, making the total 46% more than by the same date in 2024.
Further boats were seen embarking on the dangerous journey on Monday, though the official number of those who made the crossing has not yet been published.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing pressure from senior Labour figures and his own supporters, who feel the Government’s attempts to tackle the migrant crisis have so far failed.
YouGov polling released over the weekend found that 71% of voters believe the Prime Minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56% of Labour supporters.
Mr Farage told The Times the number of deportations in Sir Keir’s deal with France are “so minimal as to make no difference”.
The British public want this issue dealt with, end of story. https://t.co/XzVd2LJjpH
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 25, 2025
“It isn’t going to work, it isn’t going to happen. The French aren’t there to help us,” he added.
The Reform leader has pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and scrap the Human Rights Act as part of his plans to tackle illegal migration.
Writing for The Telegraph, he described international treaties governing human rights law as “malign influences” which had been “allowed to frustrate deportations”.
The party aims to replace the Human Rights Act 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.
Protests at sites housing asylum seekers continued over the weekend and the Government is braced for further legal fights over the use of hotels.
