Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf faced fury after announcing plans to lock up tens of thousands of migrants in detention facilities in locations controlled by parties other than Reform
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is facing a backlash after unveiling “abhorrent” plans to introduce huge detention centres in areas that don’t vote for their party.
Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf faced fury after announcing plans to lock up tens of thousands of migrants at a time in locations controlled by parties other than Reform. He said no constituencies with a Reform MP or a Reform-controlled council would have a detention facility.
He vowed to prioritise areas where the Green Party is in power to carry out its mass deportation plans as it claimed the party is in favour of “open borders”.
Labour’s chair Anna Turley branded the plans “grotesque” and said punishing places where people don’t vote for Reform is a “betrayal of basic democratic principles”. The Greens said the proposals were “abhorrent”, and a former senior Tory minister said the proposals would likely be “an abuse of ministerial power for political purposes”.
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Critics also raised concerns that choosing areas because of political motivations could mean sites are unsuitable. Targeting Green areas could mean opening detention centres in urban or densely populated cities, where the Green Party is most popular. Businessman Mr Yusuf posted a video promoting the plans filmed in Brighton, which he said could be an area Reform considers.
Reform’s draconian plans, unveiled on Sunday night, come as voters head to the polls in local elections across parts of England and in the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales. Insurgent parties like Reform and the Greens are expected to make huge gains, with Labour expected to suffer devastating losses.
In a furious statement on Monday morning, Labour’s Ms Turley said: “This grotesque policy reveals Reform’s contempt for all voters – including their own. Threatening to punish places where people don’t vote your way is a betrayal of basic democratic principles. Nigel Farage has sunk to a new low: he is clearly more interested in stoking division and anger than in serving the whole country.
“Labour has always been clear that we need a fair, controlled asylum system that works in Britain’s national interest – and that’s what we’re delivering. We’ve taken decisive action to bear down on small boat crossings and restore control of our borders. We’re going further and closing asylum hotels around the country – regardless of what party local people voted for.
“Nigel Farage doesn’t care about fixing the system – he just wants to drive a toxic wedge between our communities.”
Responding to the plans on social media, Labour peer George Foulkes said: “An astonishing threat from an unelected Reform apparatchik.”
And a Green Party spokeswoman said the plans were a “disgusting idea”, adding: “Reform keep making abhorrent announcements in attempts to distract voters from the fact they want to privatise our NHS, roll back workers rights and hand out tax breaks to their billionaire backers.”
Former senior Tory MP Simon Clarke, who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “We need to stop illegal immigration, but this is abhorrent from Reform. 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.”
He added that choosing the location for detention centres for political purposes might mean the sites are not “in any way suitable for the proposed centres, or near the other infrastructure required”.
Announcing the policy, Mr Yusuf said: “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.
“Put simply, if you vote in a Reform council or Reform MP, we guarantee you won’t have a detention centre near you. If you vote Green, there’s a good chance you will. This is an important exercise in democratic consent, not just for our mass deportation policy, but for where the detention centres are placed. Given Zack Polanski openly advocates for open borders, I look forward to their warm embrace of this policy.”