COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Accommodation for thousands awaiting mass deportation will be sited where people ‘vote for open borders’



Reform UK has pledged to build new detention centres for illegal migrants in areas that vote Green if it wins the next general election.

Nigel Farage’s party said it would “prioritise” sending migrants where there are Green councils or MPs because Zack Polanski’s party supports “open borders”.

The announcement comes as both Reform and the Greens are expected to make significant gains in council elections this Thursday.

The Green Party is projected to make inroads against Labour in metropolitan areas such as London, Newcastle, Cambridge and Manchester. Reform, meanwhile, is eyeing wins in former industrial towns such as Walsall and Hartlepool, as well as former Tory heartlands such as Essex.

Reform says it will deport all illegal migrants in Britain – which it estimates to number as many as 600,000 – if it wins the next general election.

It says it will build new detention centres to hold up to 24,000 migrants who were awaiting deportation at any one time.

Zia Yusuf [pictured above], Reform’s home affairs spokesman, has now disclosed that none of the new centres would be built in areas that elect Reform councillors or MPs.

“Even though illegal migrants will not be allowed to leave the sites, we are committing to not placing these detention sites in areas with a Reform MP or where Reform controls the council,” he told The Telegraph.

“Given the Green Party advocates for open borders and for an infinite number of undocumented men to come here, we will prioritise Green constituencies and Green-controlled councils to locate these detention centres.

“This is the fairest approach to ensuring democratic consent for all aspects of our mass deportation programme.”

Reform has said it will deport all illegal migrants – including those who have arrived on small boats and claimed asylum – under a plan called Operation Restoring Justice.

Mr Yusuf said the party would achieve that aim by passing a new law to ensure that the building of detention centres could not be obstructed by legal challenges.

The legislation, to be called the Mass Deportation Detention Act, would list specific council areas and constituencies where detention centres would be built.

Mr Yusuf said the areas to be chosen would be based on an analysis of election results up to and including the next general election, with Green areas prioritised.

He highlighted an internal Green document on migration policy which stated that the party “wants to see a world without borders”. The Greens’ website also lists one of its policies as “an end to immigration detention for all migrants unless they are a danger to public safety”.

Reform’s new Act would compel the home secretary to build detention centres in Green areas, circumventing procurement and planning rules. Because the decisions would be based on primary legislation passed by Parliament, there would be little scope for critics to bring judicial reviews.

Reform has also pledged to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, which could otherwise be used to challenge the planned new law.