Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf giving a speech in Dover (Image: Getty)
Reform UK’s new home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has said the rights of British citizens are being placed “beneath those of criminals” because of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Speaking at a press conference in Dover, Mr Yusuf listed what he said were examples of judges blocking the deportation of illegal migrants who had committed crimes. “How many more people must die at the hands of those who should never have been in our country in the first place?” he said.
“How many more victims’ families must be devastated in this way when their rights are placed beneath those of criminals? The answer is none, Vote Reform. We will leave the ECHR and end this madness.” He suggested Brits are becoming second class citizens in their own country, saying: “When Nigel Farage becomes our Prime minister, gone are the days when your rights are trampled in the service of foreign citizens. Never again will British people be second class citizens in their own country.”
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Introducing Mr Yusuf before the speech in Dover, Mr Farage warned that the failure to cut both legal and illegal immigration would encourage racist extremism.
He said: “I fear that we will see a rise of a really worrying, dangerous form of extreme right ethno-nationalism.”
Setting out his eight-point plan, Mr Yusuf said a Reform government would:
- Deliver net negative immigration by ending the era of mass immigration and deporting all illegal migrants from the United Kingdom, with the party stating that it would expect to deport over 600,000 in its first term.
- Apply visa bans on countries that refuse to take back their illegal migrants, including the likes of Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan who all have large illegal migrant populations in the UK.
- Deliver Operation Restoring Justice by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights immediately, derogating from every international treaty that has been used to frustrate the deportation of those who have no right to be here, immediately commencing the rapid construction of secure detention capacity for 24,000 illegal migrants, and establishing UK Deportation Command to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants.
- Deploy stop and search to get knives off our streets by changing the law to allow Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which currently allows senior police officers to authorise stop and search to an area for 24 hours, extendable for a further 24 hours, to be extended by up to 30 days to enable the police to disrupt impending crime in hotspots.
- Protect Britain’s Christian heritage by preventing churches being turned into places of worship of other faiths by automatically listing historic churches, preventing alterations affecting their historic character, requiring their upkeep and restricting change of use. Reform UK would also create a new planning use class for churches to prevent them being converted into places of worship for other religions.
Other measurs in Reform’s plan include:
- Introduce the “Polanski Law” to make aiding and abetting illegal entry into the UK a criminal offence, regardless of intent. This will close the loophole in the current law by making it a strict liability offence for people to perform any act that assists or encourages illegal entry, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. This will stop the Green Party endorsed charity industrial complex from facilitating large scale illegal entry under the guise of humanitarian or charitable action. The legislation will not impede lifeboats saving those in genuine distress at sea.
- Overhaul the anti-terror PREVENT programme so it is focused on the real threats Britain faces, especially Islamist terrorism, and mandate home searches in cases of repeat referrals. Where an individual is referred by three separate corroborating authorities, they will automatically and without exception be subject to a thorough physical search of their homes.
- Proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Muslim Brotherhood to begin ridding the UK of extremist organisations.
Mr Yusuf said: “There is a national security emergency at our borders, an epidemic of knife crime on our streets, public services collapsing under the weight of mass immigration and Islamist extremism being allowed to spread.”
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Reform’s Zia Yusuf Sets Out 8-Point Plan to End Immigration Crisis – “How Many Must Die?”
Zia Yusuf has set out an eight-point programme for immigration, policing and national security as Reform UK seeks to make border control one of the central issues of its political agenda. In a speech delivered in February 2026, Yusuf, the party’s shadow home secretary, presented a series of measures ranging from mass deportations and visa restrictions to changes in human-rights law and policing powers.
The speech also contained some of the strongest language yet used by a senior Reform figure on immigration. Yusuf described the arrival of migrants without legal permission as an “invasion” and asked: “How many more people must die at the hands of those who should never have been in our country in the first place?” He argued that the answer should be none and linked the issue to Reform UK’s commitment to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The language is Yusuf’s political characterization of the migration situation, rather than a neutral description of migration. The substance of his proposals, however, can be examined individually.
1. Net-negative immigration
The first part of the programme is a pledge to move Britain towards what Reform describes as “net negative immigration.”
The party says this would involve ending what it calls the era of mass immigration and removing people who have no legal right to remain in the country. Reform has said it expects to deport more than 600,000 people during a first parliamentary term.
That proposal goes considerably beyond simply increasing the number of deportations carried out by the existing Home Office. Reform’s plan envisages a dedicated enforcement structure capable of identifying, detaining and removing people across the country.
2. Visa restrictions on countries that refuse returns
The second proposal involves using Britain’s visa system as leverage.
Reform says countries that refuse to accept their nationals who have no legal right to remain in the UK could face visa bans or restrictions. The party has specifically referred to countries including Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan.
The principle is straightforward: Reform wants immigration and diplomatic policy to be connected more directly to cooperation on removals.
In practice, however, implementing such a policy would depend on negotiations with individual governments and on Britain’s ability to identify people who can legally be returned. The effectiveness of visa sanctions would therefore depend partly on the response of the countries concerned.
3. Operation Restoring Justice
The third and most extensive part of the plan is called Operation Restoring Justice.
Under the proposal, Reform would introduce a five-year emergency programme designed to identify, detain and deport people it considers to be in the UK illegally.
A new UK Deportation Command would be created. Reform has proposed detention capacity for as many as 24,000 people and up to five deportation flights a day. The party says the programme would ultimately remove all illegal migrants currently in Britain.
Reform also proposes leaving the ECHR, repealing the Human Rights Act and changing domestic law concerning asylum and illegal entry.
These proposals have attracted criticism from human-rights organisations and opposition politicians. Amnesty International UK, for example, warned against creating a British equivalent of America’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement system, while other critics have questioned the legal and practical consequences of large-scale deportation.
4. Expanded stop-and-search powers
The fourth proposal moves beyond immigration and into policing.
Yusuf proposed changing the rules surrounding Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. At present, Section 60 powers allow senior police officers to authorise stop and search in a defined area for a limited period.
Reform wants the potential duration of such powers extended to as long as 30 days in designated crime hotspots.
The stated objective is to enable police to disrupt knife crime before violence occurs. Reform presents this as part of a wider law-and-order agenda rather than solely an immigration measure.
The proposal nevertheless raises questions about the balance between preventive policing and individual rights, particularly concerning how frequently extended powers would be used and what safeguards would apply.
5. Protecting Britain’s Christian heritage
The fifth policy concerns religious buildings and planning law.
Reform says historic churches should receive greater protection from conversion into places of worship for other religions. The party proposes automatically listing historic churches and introducing a specific planning-use category to restrict changes of use.
This proposal forms part of a broader argument by Yusuf that Britain should preserve what Reform describes as its Christian heritage.
The policy has generated debate about the relationship between Britain’s historical Christian institutions, modern religious diversity and planning law. Reform presents it as cultural preservation; critics have questioned whether such restrictions would treat different religious communities equally.
6. The proposed “Polanski Law”
The sixth proposal is aimed at people or organisations that assist illegal entry.
Reform calls it the “Polanski Law.” Under the party’s proposal, deliberately or otherwise assisting or encouraging illegal entry could become a criminal offence, carrying a possible prison sentence of up to two years.
Reform says the measure would target organisations that facilitate illegal migration while maintaining that lifeboat crews responding to people genuinely in distress at sea would not be affected.
The proposal would therefore represent a significant change in the legal treatment of assistance connected with irregular migration. Its precise effect would depend on how Parliament defined “assistance,” the level of intent required and the exemptions written into legislation.
7. A tougher Prevent programme
The seventh element concerns counter-extremism.
Yusuf proposed an overhaul of the Prevent programme, with a particular emphasis on Islamist terrorism. He also proposed automatic home searches where an individual had been referred by three separate and corroborating authorities.
This is one of the most controversial elements of the eight-point programme because it would give the state significantly stronger powers following repeated referrals.
Reform argues that the measure would strengthen national security. Critics would likely focus on due process, evidential thresholds, privacy and the possibility of disproportionate effects on particular communities.
8. Proscribing the IRGC and Muslim Brotherhood
The final proposal is to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Reform says such measures would be part of an effort to prevent extremist organisations from operating in Britain.
The proposal illustrates how Yusuf’s immigration agenda has been combined with a broader conception of national security. His speech did not treat border control as an isolated administrative question; instead, he connected migration, terrorism, policing, organised crime and Britain’s national identity.
“How many more people must die?”
The most striking moment of Yusuf’s speech was his question about deaths allegedly linked to people who should not have been in Britain.
He argued that judges and human-rights rules had sometimes prevented the deportation of foreign nationals who had committed serious crimes. From that argument, he moved to the question of how many more victims would have to die before politicians changed the system.
It is important to distinguish that political argument from the broader question of crime and immigration. Individual criminal cases can involve complex circumstances, and the existence of an immigration violation does not itself establish a connection to violent crime. Yusuf’s remarks were part of Reform’s political case for changing deportation and human-rights rules.
From eight policies to a wider immigration strategy
The February programme has since been followed by further Reform proposals.
In August, Reform formally promoted Operation Fortress, under which the party says the Royal Navy would intercept migrant boats in the Channel and return people to France or Belgium. Reform describes the policy as an attempt to prevent illegal crossings from reaching British shores.
In September, Yusuf again argued that a Reform government would act rapidly, saying the party would deploy the Royal Navy, remove foreign nationals who entered illegally and deport foreign criminals. He said these measures would form part of the government’s first 100 days.
The evolution of the proposals shows that immigration remains central to Reform UK’s political programme. The party has moved from proposals for mass deportation and changes to human-rights law towards a broader strategy combining border interception, deportation, visa pressure, policing and counter-extremism.
The practical questions
The biggest questions surrounding the programme are not simply political but administrative and legal.
A mass deportation system would require detention facilities, enforcement personnel, transport, identification procedures, diplomatic agreements and countries willing to receive deportees. The Institute for Government has previously identified substantial legal, operational and international-relations obstacles surrounding Reform’s immigration proposals.
There is also the question of Parliament. Leaving an international treaty, replacing legislation and creating new criminal offences would require substantial legislative action.
Reform’s position is that the scale of the migration problem justifies exceptional measures. Its critics argue that some of those measures would create serious legal, humanitarian and practical problems.
For Yusuf, however, the underlying argument is clear: Britain should regain much greater control over who enters, who remains and who can be removed. His eight-point programme represents one of the most extensive attempts by Reform UK to translate that argument into specific policies.
Whether each measure could operate as proposed would depend on legislation, courts, international cooperation and the practical capacity of the British state. But the political significance of the programme is already apparent: immigration, border security and deportation have become central components of Reform UK’s attempt to define its approach to government.