LONDON--Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's anti-migration Reform UK party, announced a plan on Tuesday to repeal human rights laws to allow for mass deportations of asylum seekers, action he said was needed to prevent "major civil disorder". Farage said his party, which is leading in national opinion polls, would remove Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and disapply other international treaties that have been used to block the forced deportation of asylum seekers. "We are not far away from major civil disorder," Farage said at a press conference. "It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country."
The announcement comes against the backdrop of sustained, small-scale protests in recent weeks outside hotels housing asylum seekers, in response to concerns about public safety after some individuals were charged with sexual assault. Opinion polls show that immigration has overtaken the economy as British voters' biggest concern. Reform UK - which only has four members of parliament but is ahead in every survey of voting intentions - is putting Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer under growing pressure to tackle the issue, although the next election is not due until 2029. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook, who was designated by the government to respond to media questions on Tuesday, called Reform's proposals "a series of gimmicks" that would not work. He said the ECHR underpinned key international accords, including the Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence that had gripped Northern Ireland since the late 1960s.
Asked what would happen to that peace deal, Farage said it could be renegotiated but added that it would take years. A poll in July suggested about 58% of the public supported remaining in the ECHR, and this support has recently increased. In 2024, Britain received a record 108,100 asylum applicants, almost 20% more than a year earlier. Individuals from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Bangladesh made up the largest number of applicants for asylum last year. Much of the focus has been on those who arrive on small boats across the Channel, with record numbers arriving this year. Reform said changes to asylum law would mean it could deport 600,000 asylum seekers, including women and children, in its first term in power if it wins the next election. Precise figures on how many asylum seekers there are in Britain are hard to pin down. Reform claims there are 1 million people in the country illegally.
Official government figures from June 2024 showed there were 224,742 cases in the asylum system, while many more undocumented individuals are also likely to be in the country. Starmer's government and its predecessors have been wrestling for years with how to deal with undocumented migrants entering the country. Reform UK's political opponents and some charities denounced its plans, which they said would involve Britain abandoning its commitment to human rights. The party's plans would involve signing deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other countries to repatriate their nationals who arrived in Britain illegally.
