\n<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats have condemned Reform\u2019s mass deportation plans for \u201cripping up\u201d human rights and involving potential payments to autocratic regimes.<\/p>\n
The party\u2019s deputy leader Daisy Cooper<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n (Nigel) Farage\u2019s plan crumbles under the most basic scrutiny. The idea that Reform UK is going to magic up some new places to detain people and deport them to, but don\u2019t have a clue where those places would be, is taking the public for fools.<\/em><\/p>\n Of course Nigel Farage wants to follow his idol Vladimir Putin in ripping up the human rights convention. Winston Churchill would be turning in his grave. Doing so would only make it harder for each of us as individuals to hold the government to account and stop it trampling on our freedoms.<\/em><\/p>\n On potential payments to the Taliban to take back Afghan migrants, Cooper added:<\/p>\n Reform\u2019s Taliban tribute plan would send British taxpayers\u2019 cash to fund their oppressive regime, fuelling the persecution of Afghan women and children and betraying our brave armed forces who sacrificed so much fighting the Taliban. Clearly British values mean nothing to Farage and his band of plastic patriots.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Reform\u2019s plans don\u2019t stand up to scrutiny.<\/span> Photograph: Thomas Krych\/ZUMA Press Wire\/REX\/ShutterstockShare<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.12 EDT<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n <\/span>Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Kemi Badenoch<\/strong>, the Conservative party leader, has posted on X saying that Reform\u2019s \u201cimmigration plan looks v familiar\u201d.<\/p>\n She wrote: \u201cWe set out our Deportation Bill months ago. He\u2019s copied our homework but missed the lesson. At Conference, we\u2019ll show you not just the answers, but our working. That\u2019s how we\u2019ll build trust with the public and get real results.\u201d<\/p>\n Badenoch faces a pivotal few months as she prepares to deliver her first party conference speech as Tory leader. She is trying to fend off a potential leadership challenge from her shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, who has shifted to the right of Badenoch on some issues, including calling to leave the ECHR. The Conservative party sits in third place in the polls on 17%. Reform is consistently leading the polls.<\/p>\n As extreme rhetoric around illegal immigration has become normalised, Badenoch suggested the setting up of \u201ccamps\u201d earlier this month when speaking about possible alternatives to using hotels to house asylum seekers. Her comments were picked up on by the media but after a few days not much more was made of her suggestion.<\/p>\n <\/span>Kemi Badenoch celebrates being announced as the new Conservative party leader after the vote by MPs and party members last year. She beat Robert Jenrick in the final ballot.<\/span> Photograph: Stefan RousseauShare<\/p>\n The Liberal Democrats have condemned Reform\u2019s mass deportation plans for \u201cripping up\u201d human rights and involving potential payments to autocratic regimes.<\/p>\n The party\u2019s deputy leader Daisy Cooper<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n (Nigel) Farage\u2019s plan crumbles under the most basic scrutiny. The idea that Reform UK is going to magic up some new places to detain people and deport them to, but don\u2019t have a clue where those places would be, is taking the public for fools.<\/em><\/p>\n Of course Nigel Farage wants to follow his idol Vladimir Putin in ripping up the human rights convention. Winston Churchill would be turning in his grave. Doing so would only make it harder for each of us as individuals to hold the government to account and stop it trampling on our freedoms.<\/em><\/p>\n On potential payments to the Taliban to take back Afghan migrants, Cooper added:<\/p>\n Reform\u2019s Taliban tribute plan would send British taxpayers\u2019 cash to fund their oppressive regime, fuelling the persecution of Afghan women and children and betraying our brave armed forces who sacrificed so much fighting the Taliban. Clearly British values mean nothing to Farage and his band of plastic patriots.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said Reform\u2019s plans don\u2019t stand up to scrutiny.<\/span> Photograph: Thomas Krych\/ZUMA Press Wire\/REX\/ShutterstockShare<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.12 EDT<\/p>\n A record 28,076 migrants have crossed the Channel to Britain in small boats this year, a 46% rise on the same period in 2024, government data showed on Monday. Many of these people were likely fleeing war, famine or persecution, or seeking better economic opportunities\/joining family members in the UK.<\/p>\n Small boat arrivalsShare<\/p>\n Kolbassia Haoussou, <\/strong>director of survivor leadership and influencing at the charity Freedom from Torture, has reacted to Reform <\/strong>saying it would disapply the 1951 Refugee Contention and the UN Convention Against Torture.<\/p>\n Haoussou said:<\/p>\n This is not who we are as a country. Here in the UK, public support for upholding the torture ban has grown significantly in recent years.<\/em><\/p>\n People know that turning a blind eye is just not an option. Men, women and children are coming to the UK looking for safety. They are fleeing the unimaginable horrors of torture in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran. And they desperately need our protection.<\/em><\/p>\n At Freedom from Torture, we see every day the human cost of torture: how it destroys lives and tears at the fabric of societies.<\/em><\/p>\n The UN Convention Against Torture is a promise to defend our shared right to live a life free from torture. For centuries, the UK has been a leading voice against torture, helping to shape the very international laws that Reform proposes we destroy.<\/em><\/p>\n These laws were created in the aftermath of the second world war to protect us all. If Britain were to abandon this legacy it would hand repressive regimes around the world a gift and undermine one of humanity\u2019s clearest moral lines. We must not stay silent.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.44 EDT<\/p>\n Asked whether Reform would make an exception for Afghans who supported Britain, he said: \u201cAbsolutely. There were brave Afghans who supported the British forces and American forces during that 20 year war, who, of course, absolutely of course, deserve recompense for the enormous risks they took.\u201d<\/p>\n He added:<\/p>\n This country has taken half a million refugees since the Brexit referendum. This country is not closed-minded to groups that genuinely face persecution, to groups that genuinely are refugees.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Aubrey Allegretti, the Times\u2019 chief political correspondent, asked Farage what specific disused or surplus RAF bases he would use to hold migrants or to operate deportation filghts from. Farage could not name any specific locations despite this being a major part of his deportation proposal. He said:<\/p>\n The last government \u2013 and this one \u2013 have been housing people in military bases. One or two campaigns have stopped them using certain, particular geographical locations but quite a few have been used around the country.<\/em><\/p>\n So you get put into a military base but you are free to walk the streets at night, you are free to possibly even go and drive a delivery bike for somebody.<\/em><\/p>\n The military bases that we will use people will be detained. They won\u2019t be out walking the streets on the road to being deported.<\/em><\/p>\n So I would suggest to you that whichever geographical locations are chosen, local residents will be far less concerned by this plan than they would young men being free 24 hours a day to walk through their village or walk through their town.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.32 EDT<\/p>\n Farage confirms that women and children would also be detained and deported under Reform\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n Answering a question from Sky News\u2019 political correspondent Serena Barker Singh, Farage said: \u201cWomen and children, everybody on arrival will be detained, and I\u2019ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.\u201d<\/p>\n The Reform leader added:<\/p>\n But the people protesting outside the Bell Hotel and at 30 migrant hotels on Saturday around the country weren\u2019t doing it because of the few children coming.<\/em><\/p>\n They were doing it because over three-quarters of those that come are young undocumented males who come from cultures that are entirely different from ours, who are very unlikely to assimilate into our community, who pose a risk to women and girls, and some of them, I\u2019m afraid, pose a risk to national security.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n About 600,000 asylum seekers could be deported in the first parliament of a Reform government, Farage has suggested.<\/p>\n Answering a media question on the parameters of the mass deportation plans, Farage said: \u201cHow far back you go with this is the difficulty, and I accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n Pointing to queries about what would happen to children, he added: \u201cI\u2019m not standing here telling you all of this is easy, all of this is straightforward.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we had of course with the Windrush row, we had a situation there where people who\u2019d come 50, 60, in fact nearly 70 years ago, had faulty paperwork. So there is an exercise of common sense that has to come in here.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning to Zia Yusuf, Farage said: \u201cBut do we realistically think, Zia, we can deport five, 600,000 people in the lifetime of the first parliament?\u201d Yusuf replied: \u201cTotally.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Former Reform chair, Zia Yusuf, and Nigel Farage speak on stage in Oxford.<\/span> Photograph: Leon Neal\/Getty ImagesShare<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.37 EDT<\/p>\n Farage is taking questions from the press now. The first is from the BBC\u2019s Ben Wright who asks him if he minds the fact his plans risks asylum seekers being sent back to countries where they could face torture or even death.<\/p>\n Farage says it does bother him, before adding: \u201cWhat really bothers me is what is happening on the streets of our country. What really bothers me is what is happening to British citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat really bothers me is\u2026 and you\u2019ve seen this from the Bell Hotel onwards, the growing concern with justifiable evidence that women and girls are far less safe on the streets than they were before this began. So it\u2019s all about whose side are you on?\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Zia Yusuf, head of Reform\u2019s government efficiency department, spoke briefly after Nigel Farage. Here is some of what he said:<\/p>\n If you come to the UK illegally, you will receive a lifetime ban from ever coming back to our country, re entering after deportation will become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/em><\/p>\n Deliberately destroying your identity documents having come here illegally will also become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/em><\/p>\n We will pair this legislative reset with a UK deportation command \u2013 that is a dedicated force to identifying, detaining and deporting illegal migrants at scale.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ll create a cutting edge data fusion centre that will automatically share data between the police, the home office, the NHS, the DVLA, HMRC and banks.<\/em><\/p>\n This will allow deportation command to relentlessly track down and detain all those who entered our country illegally.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ll build capacity to detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants at a time. That enables us to deport up to 288,000 illegal migrants a year. Detention will mean deportation, no chance of bail, no chance of absconding.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.05 EDT<\/p>\n Laying out his proposals, Farage said Reform would:<\/p>\n Leave the European convention on human rights \u201cno ifs, no buts\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention for five years and any other \u201cbarriers that can be used by lawyers in this country to prevent deportations\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Create a legal duty for the home secretary to remove people that come illegally<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Detain all illegal migrants who come and we will do so \u201cimmediately\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span>Nigel Farage addresses journalists during a press conference in a hangar at Oxford airport in Kidlington.<\/span> Photograph: Joanna Chan\/APShare<\/p>\n Farage claims that his party\u2019s proposals could save hundreds of billions of pounds over the next decade. He says an \u201ceye watering\u201d amount of money is currently being spent dealing with illegal immigration (he talks about the operations in the English Channel and the amount of court and police time taken up).<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Updated at\u00a005.51 EDT<\/p>\n Farage accuses the British and French governments of \u201ccolluding in their support of criminal activity\u201d in their response to small boats\u2019 crossings, which he is framing as a crisis. The Reform party leader said:<\/p>\n And even as we speak, despite the \u00a3800m we have given the French, even as we speak, there are French naval vessels escorting these boats across to a 12-mile line where they will be picked up by Border Force or our volunteers for the RNLI if it\u2019s a busy day and Border Force simply can\u2019t cope.<\/em><\/p>\n And now what happens is the French give them all lifejackets, and when they\u2019re picked up by Border Force, Border Force gives the lifejackets back to the French so they can reuse them on the next journey. <\/em><\/p>\n I mean we are literally witnessing two governments colluding in their support of criminal activity.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Farage says the growing anger over the last few weeks (seen through demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country) is a \u201ccultural one\u201d.<\/p>\n In the sense that many of these young men come from countries in which women aren\u2019t even second-class citizens and frankly the public have now just had enough.<\/em><\/p>\n And what began as a protest of mothers and concerned citizens outside the Bell Hotel in Epping has now spread right across the country. <\/em><\/p>\n And all of it really poses one big, fundamental question: whose side are you on? Are you on the side of women and children being safe on our streets or are you on the side of outdated, international treaties backed up by a series of dubious courts.<\/em><\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reform’s mass deportation plans ‘rip up’ human rights, Lib Dems say The Liberal Democrats have condemned Reform\u2019s mass deportation plans for \u201cripping up\u201d human rights and involving potential payments to autocratic regimes. The party\u2019s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: (Nigel) Farage\u2019s plan crumbles under the most basic scrutiny. The idea that Reform UK is going<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2124,5544,3132,761,4098,132,1472,3131,480,124,702,9343,10877],"class_list":{"0":"post-17901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-deportations","10":"tag-farage","11":"tag-human","12":"tag-laws","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-mass","15":"tag-nigel","16":"tag-plans","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-rights","19":"tag-ripping","20":"tag-unveiling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Badenoch: Farage has copied our homework<\/h2>\n
Reform’s mass deportation plans ‘rip up’ human rights, Lib Dems say<\/h2>\n
Farage can’t name specific RAF bases Reform would use to hold migrants before deportations<\/h2>\n
Farage says women and children would be detained under mass deportation plans<\/h2>\n
Reform will build capacity to ‘detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants at a time’, Yusuf says<\/h2>\n
Farage unveils mass deportation plans for government<\/h2>\n
\n
Farage says Britain and France are ‘colluding in support of criminal activity’<\/h2>\n