Reform UK says it would prioritise Green-voting areas for migrant detention centres, a pledge opponents condemned as divisive and unserious.
Reform UK has said it would open migrant detention centres for people awaiting deportation in areas that vote for the Green Party, escalating a row over its immigration plans.
The party had previously pledged to build removal centres in remote parts of the country if elected, as part of a wider plan to detain up to 24,000 people within 18 months. Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, said Green-controlled areas would be prioritised because of what he called the party’s support for “open borders”
A Green Party spokesperson called the proposal a “disgusting idea” and accused Reform of “making abhorrent announcements in attempts to distract voters” from its other policies. The spokesperson said the Greens wanted a “fair and managed immigration system”, adding that the party recognised the current system was broken but was “not into performative cruelty”
Reform also said it would not put detention centres in areas where it has an MP or where it controls the council.
Yusuf said the approach was intended to secure “democratic consent” for what Reform describes as its mass deportation programme. The party has said it would introduce a Mass Deportation Detention Act giving the home secretary powers to prevent councils from blocking the opening of detention centres.
Under the plan described by Reform, people placed in the centres would not be able to leave and would remain there for about two weeks before being deported.
The BBC reported that official figures from the current prison programme show closed facilities cost about £500,000 per bed to build, a design standard broadly used for immigration removal centres. On that basis, building 24,000 detention spaces would cost about £12bn.
The proposal drew criticism across the political spectrum. Labour Party chair Anna Turley described it as a “grotesque policy” and accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of trying to divide communities. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said Reform was “not a serious party” and called the plan “clearly made up on the spot for a social media video”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said the row showed a lack of solutions from both Reform and the Greens for a “safe, fair and controlled asylum system”. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said the idea illustrated what he called the dangerous nature of Reform’s politics.
The Greens’ 2024 general election manifesto called for an end to immigration detention for all migrants unless they are a danger to public safety. The party has previously said it wants to see “a world without borders”, though leader Zack Polanski told Sky News last year that open borders were “not a pragmatic” solution in a world in turmoil.
Reform has not yet set out where specific centres would be located, leaving councils and constituencies to wait for further detail on how the pledge would be applied.
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