Reform promises agency to ensure illegal migrant removals

An agency to coordinate the deportation of illegal migrants would be launched as a "burning" priority by a Reform UK government, Zia Yusuf has said.

In his first speech as the party's home affairs spokesman, Yusuf said a UK Deportation Command would be established to deliver Operation Restoring Justice, promising to detain 24,000 illegal migrants.

Officers would "track down, detain and deport all illegal migrants", he said, housing them in modular accommodation, before running five returns flights a day.

Yusuf said action was also needed to protect British culture, including new rules to prevent churches being converted into mosques.

He also expressed support for a ban on face coverings, like the burka.

Taking to the stage at a press conference in Dover, alongside party leader Nigel Farage, Yusuf claimed emergency measures were justified because the UK is being "invaded" by migrants and "the patience of the British people is now exhausted".

Describing the almost 200,000 migrants who arrived by small boat in the last eight years as "an invasion", he said this was "more than stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day".

"A Reform government will launch an emergency programme to track down, detain and deport all illegal migrants in the UK," he said.

"We will embark on mass deportations using chartered flights with five departures every single day.

"To guarantee success an RAF plane will be on standby in the event of mechanical issues. These flights will not be delayed."

Yusuf had earlier told BBC Breakfast that Reform had "modelled a total of £2bn a year for this programme".

He said: "That's a fraction of the amount the British people spend on just accommodation for illegal migrants in this country," he said. "It's going to pay for itself many, many times over."

He also claimed Reform could tackle the problem of countries like Pakistan refusing to accept deported citizens by denying them visa rights.

Yusuf said Pakistan had the "highest overstay rates of any country", yet had "routinely refused" to allow these citizens to be returned from the UK.

"In order that we issue visas I think it's very, very reasonable that we say you should take back the citizens of your country that have overstayed in our country and are here illegally and are a drain, in many cases, on resources in this country."

New laws should be brought in to prevent churches being turned into mosques or places of worship for other faiths, Yusuf said, citing a need to protect British culture.

Asked whether he supported a burka ban at the press conference, Yusuf said he backs a ban on "all face coverings in public" - a shift in stance from when Yusuf briefly quit the party last year, describing a question to the prime minister about a ban on burkas as "dumb".

He told the press conference: "I personally support a ban on all face coverings in public... that's actually a piece of legislation that has multiple bonuses to it because it's going to aid integration, it's also going to help people feel safe."

On BBC Politics Live, Yusuf went into more detail on plans to ringfence welfare payments for British citizens, saying "we've got to put the British people first".

He said: "It is totally ridiculous the British spent £15bn on universal credit payments over the last 18 months alone."

Labour MP Catherine Atkinson defended Labour's policies on the same programme, saying: "It's because we're saying there will be action on visas if you don't accept returns that we are seeing a fall in numbers.

"We're already bringing down the backlog, and we've recouped £70m in wasteful contracts for asylum hotels."

Conservative MP Andrew Bowie said Tory policy was already to leave the ECHR adding: "I agree with Zia that we need to take action this."