Zia Yusuf will unveil radical plans for a migration crackdown in major speech
Zia Yusuf unveiled as Reform’s Shadow Home Secretary
Up to 6,000 illegal migrants will be deported every week under a Reform UK government, Zia Yusuf will claim on Monday. Nigel Farage’s home affairs chief says 600,000 people will be removed over five years, a move he insists will end the small boats “invasion”.
Mr Yusuf will set out his radical masterplan – Operation Restoring Justice – in a major speech in Dover. His Trump-style proposals include sweeping legislative changes, including leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), mass deportations, and a zero-tolerance approach to knife crime and Islamist extremism.
Thousands of migrants have made the perilous journey across the Channel (Image: Getty)
Small boat crossings have surged (Image: Migration Watch)
The plans could dramatically increase the number of people being removed from the UK. Some 58,500 illegal migrants and foreign criminals have left since Labour won the 2024 election, most of them voluntarily.
Mr Yusuf is expected to say: “For decades, the Tories and Labour have turned the other way while the very fabric of our society has been under assault.
“The social contract has not merely been broken, it’s been shattered.
“My message to the British people is simple – I will secure our borders and make you feel safe.”
If it wins the next general election, expected in 2029, a Reform government would rapidly build detention capacity for 24,000 illegal migrants and ramp deportation flights to five per day.
Mr Yusuf’s speech is expected to include new policies on what Reform describes as “protecting British culture” and a “zero-tolerance” approach to Islamist extremism, building on its recent announcement that it would proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood.
In November, as part of Labour’s crackdown on illegal migration, Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, warned Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo that the UK would deny their people entry unless they rapidly improved co-operation on taking back deportees.
Those countries have since agreed to co-operate.
But Mr Yusuf will accuse Labour of threatening visa bans on only a “handful of African countries responsible for only a minuscule proportion of illegal migrants”.
He will say that Reform would go further and target countries with larger illegal migrant populations, citing Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan.
The number of asylum claims has also risen sharply (Image: Migration Watch)
In an attack on Labour and the Conservatives, he will argue in his speech against the “cosy consensus” that Britain needs immigration to maintain economic growth.
He will say that improving productivity, rather than using cheap unskilled labour, is fundamental to increasing GDP.
He will also take aim at former prime minister Boris Johnson.
“Boris threw open our borders and imported a staggering 3.4million migrants in three years, the vast majority came on non-work visas,” he will add.
“They will shortly be granted ILR [indefinite leave to remain], which means they gain lifetime access to our welfare state. A lifetime of living off the British taxpayer. This will cost hundreds of billions of pounds.
“That’s why the Boriswave must be averted. A Reform government will terminate all welfare payments to foreign nationals.”
Anna Turley, chairwoman of the Labour Party, said: “Reform wants to divide our country, not deliver for the British people.
“Their plan to deport people who have followed the rules, worked hard and built their lives here – our friends, neighbours and colleagues – is a direct attack on settled families and fundamentally un-British.”
Chris Philp, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “It is clear Reform don’t have a problem with Conservative plans as they’ve simply copied and pasted them. Instead of coming up with their own solutions, they’re showing they are incapable of taking real action to secure our borders.
“The Conservatives’ BORDERS Plan is clear. We will leave the ECHR and ECAT, ban asylum and other protection claims from illegal entrants, establish a new dedicated Removals Force, introduce a binding annual cap on legal migration to dramatically reduce numbers, increase deportations to 150,000 a year, and finally end the endless cycle of appeals that has kept Britain’s borders under strain. This is the scale of action Britain needs to take back control.
“Only the Conservatives are doing the hard work to restore order, secure our borders and protect our country.”
