Nigel Farage’s bombshell new migrant policy is the real deal – and this is how I know_t

Nigel Farage has explained his plan to end prison overcrowding. And there was one key moment that made it clear why a Reform government will be different to all the rest. He was talking to activists and the media in a London press conference about plans to send more than 10,000 foreign criminals currently in UK jails to foreign countries. The first choice will be to send them home, but if their countries refuse to take them back then a Reform government would pay a country such as El Salvador to house them in specially-built jails instead.

It may sound expensive, but actually it would cost half as much as keeping them in British prisons. And it would end the problem of prison overcrowding at home – which is what’s caused the current Labour government to release prisoners early, including potentially the killers of PC Andrew Harper.

But there might be one snag. A journalist asked about legal challenges, and pointed out that the last Conservative government’s attempt to send asylum seekers to Rwanda had failed because the courts kept on blocking deportations.

The journalist asked: “That means you end up clogging the courts with people taking legal action against this. There are people working in the courts every day who say, ‘you are creating a problem with this’.”

But the answer – which came from Mr Farage’s colleague Zia Yusuf, Reform’s foreign affairs spokesman – showed why Reform is not the same as the other parties.

He said: “I get that. Our inbox is full of people saying you are going to clog up the legal system.”

But he added: “One of the really cool things that His Majesty’s government can do is to change the law.”

And that included leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, he said.

“It can be done and it must be done.”

The key point isn’t just that Reform would take the UK out of the European Convention. It’s also that they really are determined to carry out policies that the British people have voted for – if they win the general election.

Mr Yusuf is correct to say governments can change the law. But he might also have added that they can make changes if their MPs let them.

And the problem Labour faces is that its own MPs oppose serious attempts to control immigration. In fact, the Conservatives have had the same problem in the past too, which is why party leader Kemi Badenoch is being ruthless about blocking people who disagree with her from standing as Tory Parliamentary candidates.

But Reform might actually do what it is promising to do. And if you don’t like their plans then you’re entitled to your opinion, and of course you can vote for someone else. But if, at the next election, UK voters do choose to make Nigel Farage Prime Minister, then this time they may actually get what they voted for.