Nigel Farage wants you to believe Britain could deport 288,000 people annually. That’s nearly 800 a day – 30 times the current rate of asylum-related returns. This is a fantasy concealing his real aim: to destroy public trust in democratic institutions, crush legal constraints and turn fear into power. Mr Farage isn’t trying to fix the asylum system. In fact, he wants to dismantle the political framework necessary to achieve that goal: the treaties, parliamentary conventions and centuries of legal protections. In their place, a Reform government would operate by executive fiat cloaked in nationalist rhetoric.
“Operation Restoring Justice” is a louder, more extreme version of Rishi Sunak’s failed 2023 strategy to detain everyone, deport everyone and process no one. This led to a backlog of unheard asylum claims, spiralling hotel costs and public anger – with no drop in small boat crossings. But Mr Farage wants to go further. He pledges to withdraw from the European convention on human rights (ECHR); repeal the Human Rights Act to remove legal routes of appeal; disapply the UN refugee convention for five years; and exit anti-torture and anti-trafficking treaties.
