Yusuf’s Plans To Punish Areas Which Do Not Vote Reform

Reform UK has been slammed after it revealed a new policy to put migrant detention facilities in constituencies and councils not controlled by its own representatives.

Days out from the local elections in England, and devolved elections in Wales and Scotland, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf declared that a Reform government would “deport all illegal migrants in Britain”.

While waiting to be deported, the migrants would be housed in detention centres for a “couple of weeks”.

Yusuf claimed: “A Reform government will not put any migrant detention facilities in any constituency with a Reform MP.

“Nor will we put them where Reform controls the council.

“And of the remaining areas, we will prioritise Green controlled parliamentary constituencies and Green controlled councils to locate the detention centres.”

Yusuf said this meant if Reform representatives were voted in, they would “guarantee you won’t have a detention centre near you” – but, “if you vote Green, there’s a good chance you will.”

Reform called this “an important exercise in democratic consent”.

The senior Reform figure added: “Given Zack Polanski openly advocates for open borders, we look forward to their warm embrace of this policy.”

Deputy Green leader Mothin Ali said: “Reform keep making abhorrent announcements to distract voters from they fact they want to privatise the NHS.”

A Green Party source told HuffPost UK: “The shine is coming off Nigel Farage, his own voters are starting to see him for the establishment stooge he is.”

Green leader Zack Polanski wrote on X: “Reform took a £5m donation and they’re trying to distract you.”

Reform’s announcement comes after party leader Nigel Farage was heavily criticised for pulling out the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last minute.

The party claimed Farage was campaigning in his constituency in Clacton.

However, his critics suggested he was evading scrutiny after the Guardian reported that he had received a £5 million donation from a crypto billionaire shortly before he decided to run to be an MP in 2024.

The Conservatives also criticised the new migrant policy, as leader Kemi Badenoch retweeted a post from former cabinet minister Simon Clarke which called the policy an “appalling waste of public money”.

Clarke noted that these detention centres would likely be set up in other areas where the public have not voted for Reform – including Conservative seats.

He said: “Zia is proposing the siting of detention centres expressly as a form of political punishment for people and places that don’t vote Reform – not just Green, but presumably Conservative, Liberal and Labour too. (And what about Reform voters in those constituencies?)

“It would almost certainly be deemed an abuse of ministerial power for political purposes, and as such would likely be stuck down in court before ever being implemented, wasting millions for the taxpayer without detaining anyone.

“If it were to go ahead, it would still represent an appalling waste of public money as these sites might well not be in any way suitable for the proposed centres, or near the other infrastructure required.

“What’s worse is that he is doing all this to provoke outrage and draw attention to Reform a few days out from the local elections.

“Reform know what they are doing.

“But this goes beyond a pre-election stunt. It’s declared as a major policy commitment, and should be treated as such.”

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.