Nigel Farage is doubling down on his tough stance against small boat crossings, saying Reform UK would push through mass deportations if they were in power.

Speaking to The Times, the Reform leader claimed Britain faces a “massive crisis” that he believes threatens national security and risks sparking unrest. His plan? Anyone arriving in the UK by small boat could be arrested immediately, held in disused RAF bases, and then flown back to countries like Afghanistan and Eritrea—if deals could be struck with those governments.

Critics say the proposals are unrealistic. Labour dismissed them as “pie in the sky,” while the Conservatives argued Reform is simply recycling old Tory ideas. Legal battles would also be inevitable, given how previous deportation schemes—such as the Rwanda plan—collapsed under court challenges and opposition pressure.

Farage insists his plan would save money in the long run, claiming it could cost £10bn over five years but would remove the need for expensive hotel accommodation for asylum seekers. If returns to countries of origin weren’t possible, Reform says it would look at sending people to British overseas territories, like Ascension Island, or to “third countries” such as Rwanda and Albania.

“The aim of this legislation is mass deportations,” Farage said, adding that if people know they’ll be detained and removed, crossings will stop “very quickly.”

He also called for Britain to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, the decades-old treaty that underpins much of the UK’s legal protection for migrants. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia commons.