LONDON (AP) — Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s hard-right Reform UK party, said Tuesday that if he wins the next election he will leave the European Convention on Human Rights and immediately detain and deport anyone who arrives in the country illegally, including children.
Farage laid out his plans following a significant rise in migrants who arrive by boat across the English Channel, and weeks of protests over the government’s use of hotels to house asylum-seekers.
“If you come to the U.K. illegally, you will be detained and deported and never, ever allowed to stay, period,” Farage told a press conference.
“The mood in the country around this issue is a mix between total despair and rising anger,” he added, claiming there is now “a genuine threat to public order” if no action is taken.
He said the issue of “how we deal with children is much more complicated,” but added: “Women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.”
Despite holding just four of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, Farage ‘s party has gained momentum by seizing on public frustration over successive governments’ inability to bring down the number of migrants coming by boat. National polls have suggested that support for Reform equals or surpasses that of the ruling Labour Party and the Conservatives.
The party hopes to displace the Conservatives as the country’s main party on the right by the next national election, due by 2029.
Farage, who has long sought to link problems such as public health care and housing to migrant arrivals, reiterated his stance that the U.K. is being “invaded” by migrants. He said he would introduce policies to mass deport hundreds of thousands of people over the first five years of being in government.
Reform will leave the ECHR and repeal or “disapply” all other rights treaties to bar all asylum claims and ensure migrants who arrive without authorization are deported, he added. It will scale up the capacity of detention facilities and secure deals with countries including Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran to return migrants, Farage said, without offering details.
Asked about the prospect of asylum-seekers being tortured or killed if they were sent back to countries they fled, Farage said: “The alternative is to do nothing … We cannot be responsible for all the sins that take place around the world.”
Almost 29,000 people have crossed the English Channel by boat in 2025, up about 50% from the same period last year. On Monday, 659 migrants arrived in the U.K. by boat.
A much larger number of people — over 111,000 — applied for asylum in the U.K. in the year up to June, official figures show.
Reform’s deportation plans echo similar tough migration policies by Germany, which deported dozens of Afghan men to their homeland last month.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ditched the previous Conservative administration’s flagship plan to send migrants who arrived by unauthorized means to Rwanda. Instead, he has pinned hopes on a deal agreed with France last month to send some migrants who cross the English Channel on dinghies and inflatable boats back to France.
U.K. officials have suggested the “one in, one out” plan is a major breakthrough, despite the initial program involving a limited number of people.
The government is also looking to speed up the processing of asylum claims. Officials have housed tens of thousands of migrants awaiting their asylum outcome in hotels at public expense. Tensions over the policy have long simmered, but tipped into protests in recent weeks after a hotel resident was charged with sexual assault after he allegedly approached a 14-year-old girl and tried to kiss her.
The man, 38-year-old Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, attended a court hearing Tuesday. He has denied the charges.
Anti-migrant demonstrations, as well as counterprotests, have flared after local authorities won a temporary injunction last week to shut down the Bell Hotel in Epping, on the outskirts of London.
Reform’s plans were dismissed by other political parties as lacking in substance and condemned by rights groups.
“Men, women and children are coming to the U.K. looking for safety. They are fleeing the unimaginable horrors of torture in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran, and they desperately need our protection,” said Kolbassia Haoussou at the nonprofit Freedom from Torture.
