Reform UK has unveiled a radical set of asylum policies, stating that if it were to form a government, it would close down the asylum system for a full parliamentary term. The party said all new asylum applications would be rejected and existing applications voided, with all claimants marked for deportation. It would also scrap the asylum tribunal system, and claimants involved in more than 90,000 outstanding appeals would be deported. No grants of humanitarian protection or refugee status would be made.
To prevent legal challenges to the plans, Reform said it would pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention. Party leader Nigel Farage said the UK is "facing a national security emergency" and "we cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally."
The proposals drew swift criticism from other parties. Labour chairperson Bridget Phillipson called them a "clear sign of desperation and weakness," adding that "running away from basic decency by entirely abandoning those escaping war and persecution might look to Reform like a way of winning a bidding war with other parties on the right, but the vast majority of British people will reject it as an assault on our common values."
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals "largely copy" his party's policies, arguing that "only the Conservatives have a serious and credible plan to fix our borders." Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said: "Reform and the Conservatives were the architects of the failed asylum system and now they will exploit it at every opportunity - including Farage's latest announcement."