British citizens would be prioritised over foreigners under Nigel Farage‘s plans to end the small boats crisis, according to Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf. The Reform leader will set out proposals tomorrow for mass deportations of Channel migrants if he wins the keys to 10 Downing Street at the next general election.

The first step of the insurgent party’s blueprint is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. The legislation would only apply to British citizens and those with a legal right to live in the UK, and it would refer to the protection of liberty and free speech instead of human rights.

Mr Yusuf, one of Reform’s most senior figures, told The Times: “It will have nothing in it to help activist judges to stop flights taking off.

“It will prioritise the rights of British citizens over foreign ones. We are not going to flinch. We’re not going to be intimidated. We are going to deliver for the British people.

“It’s the only way to restore this country. To stop the invasion from happening.”

Arresting asylum seekers on arrival, automatic detention and forced deportation to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea with five flights a day are among the plans expected to be unveiled at a press conference tomorrow.

They also include deals with third countries, which could include reviving the Conservatives‘ Rwanda agreement, and sending migrants to British overseas territories such as Ascension Island as a “fallback” option.

Mr Yusuf said: “It’s a huge undertaking. We think it’s absolutely necessary. The country is in a state when it has totally lost control of its borders.

“The British people have had more than enough. It’s a national security emergency.

“It’s also a fiscal emergency. If you take the cost of accommodation and the cost of asylum seekers you get to north of £7 billion. This has to be done. It has to work. This is a pretty transformative legal reset we’re doing here.”

The former Reform chairman insisted that small boats would stop coming to the UK “immediately”.

The Tories accused Reform of “just recycling many ideas the Conservatives have already announced”.

Labour’s border security minister Angela Eagle said: “We are getting a grip of the broken asylum system. Making sure those with no right to be here are removed or deported.”