Keir Starmer has left the door open to striking deportation deals with the Taliban and Eritrea, as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage unveiled radical plans to remove 600,000 asylum seekers within five years.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the government was “not going to take anything off the table” when pressed about potential agreements with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and the authoritarian government of Eritrea. The comments came as Farage announced his party’s controversial “mass deportation” programme at a press conference in Westminster on Tuesday.
Downing Street’s refusal to rule out negotiations with regimes accused of torture and human rights abuses marks a significant moment in Britain’s increasingly fraught immigration debate. The spokesman said the Prime Minister “recognises the strength of feeling” about illegal migration, whilst stopping short of endorsing Farage’s use of the term “invasion” to describe small boat arrivals.
“The Prime Minister understands and shares the frustration people feel about levels of illegal migration,” the spokesman told reporters. “That’s why we’re taking serious practical action to address this issue, not just returning back to the old gimmicks, the old solutions that failed to deal with this.”
Reform UK’s “Operation Restoring Justice” would see Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention for five years. The party pledged to detain all small boat arrivals immediately, including women and unaccompanied children, whilst negotiating returns agreements with countries including Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran.
“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” Farage warned at the press conference. “It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country.”
The Clacton MP said five deportation flights would leave Britain daily under his plans, with detention capacity increased to 24,000 across repurposed military sites. The proposals include a £2 billion budget to secure agreements with foreign governments, though Farage declined to specify how much might be paid to the Taliban.
Reform’s Head of Government Efficiency, Zia Yusuf, defended the prospect of payments to Afghanistan’s rulers, saying it was “quite reasonable” given Britain already provides £151 million annually in foreign aid to the country. “It’s certainly not a drop in the ocean to Afghanistan, certainly not a drop in the ocean for Eritrea, the two countries that are top of the list of boat crossings,” he said.
The plans represent a dramatic U-turn for Farage, who told GB News last September that mass deportations were a “political impossibility. Yusuf explained the shift, saying: “The reason why Nigel has changed his mind is, number one, we’ve done the work and we’ve worked out that actually it is much more realistic operationally than people have been led to believe.”
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook dismissed Reform’s proposals as “put together on the back of a fag packet” and warned that securing returns agreements with countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea is “for the birds”. He questioned the feasibility of negotiating with Iran whilst Britain maintains sanctions against the regime.
What does Reform think is going to happen in the case of Iran, a country that we’re currently sanctioning, they’re just going to agree a returns agreement?” Pennycook told Sky News.
The government faces mounting pressure over immigration, with a record 28,288 people crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year – a 46 per cent increase on the same period in 2024. More than 52,000 migrants have arrived since Starmer took office, with almost 900 making the journey over the bank holiday weekend alone.
YouGov polling released at the weekend found that 71 per cent of voters believe the Prime Minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including 56 per cent of Labour supporters. Immigration has overtaken the economy as voters’ top concern, according to recent surveys.
Whilst Number 10 declined to condemn Farage’s inflammatory language, it delivered a sharp rebuke over his suggestion to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement, which is underpinned by the ECHR. “Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement is not serious,” the spokesman said.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper condemned the proposals, saying: “Reform’s Taliban tribute plan would send British taxpayers’ cash to fund their oppressive regime, fuelling the persecution of Afghan women and children and betraying our brave Armed Forces who sacrificed so much fighting the Taliban.”
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve warned that Reform’s plans could face legal obstacles even without human rights legislation. “You still can’t rule out that a court might intervene to stop deportation under customary law or even the common law,” he told The Independent.
The Conservatives accused Reform of “re-heating and recycling” their policies, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp saying: “Earlier this year we introduced and tabled votes on our Deportation Bill in Parliament, detailing how we would disapply the Human Rights Act from all immigration matters.
Reform claims its five-year programme would cost £10 billion to implement but would ultimately save £7 billion currently spent on illegal migration. The party suggests voluntary returnees could use a “deportation app” and receive £2,500 plus free flights home.
As protests continue outside asylum hotels across the country, including in Castle Bromwich near Birmingham and Canary Wharf in London, the political battle over immigration looks set to dominate British politics well into the future.
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