Nigel Farage says Reform will suspend the UK asylum system for five years and deport thousands of refugees if he becomes PM

Nigel Farage is set to announce a pledge to ban anyone from being granted asylum for five years if Reform were elected.

The Reform UK leader will today re-ignite a proposal from earlier this year to suspend the asylum system for a full parliamentary term and declare void any applications in progress.

All asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes will be scrapped and a Reform government would not hear the around 90,000 outstanding asylum and humanitarian protection appeals and instead deport the claimants.

Additionally, any refugees granted asylum in the last five years would have their cases reviewed by the Home Office, meaning around 400,000 people could also be eligible to be removed despite having been allowed to stay.

Mr Farage told The Telegraph today: 'The country is currently facing a national security emergency and the first duty of government is to protect its citizens.

'We cannot accept more asylum seekers while we still have no idea how many people are in the country illegally and the threat they pose.

'A Reform government will always put British people first and protect our borders.'

But Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals 'largely copy' the Conservatives.

'Banning asylum claims by illegal immigrants, abolishing the immigration tribunal and ending Labour's resettlement routes are all existing Conservative policy.

'Our detailed BORDERS plan also sees us coming out of the ECHR and ensures all illegal immigrants are removed within a week of arrival – and closes the modern slavery claim and judicial review loopholes, both of which Reform seems to have missed.'  

The party would immediately close resettlement schemes that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently said would reopen, with around a quarter of those admitted to the UK expected to be Palestinians and women and girls from Afghanistan.

Reform says there is 'no mandate' for such schemes and that anyone who has arrived under them would be deported.

Reform will also pledge to use Donald-Trump-style tariffs to force countries to take back migrants.

Foreign airlines could also be banned from using British airspace, under drastic action intended to end the 'invasion of our country'.

Reform is pushing the Trump-style tactic to burnish its credentials as tough on Channel boats and border controls.  

The party has already promised 'visa freezes' on those wanting to visit the UK legally from countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if they do not accept deportees.

That would halt any new visas for nationals of those countries – as well as Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia – which the party would target due to having significant levels of visas issued to the UK.

But Reform is now expanding the toolkit of measures for countries that would not be hit hard by such restrictions.

Egypt is a potential example, according to The Sunday Times, which first reported the tariff plan.

Labour called the plans 'a clear sign of desperation and weakness'.

Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said: 'Nigel Farage is casting around for more and more extreme policies as he tries to deal with scandals, police investigations and a growing challenge from Restore — this is a carbon copy of their policy.

'Running away from basic decency by entirely abandoning those escaping war and persecution might look to Reform like a way of winning a bidding war with other parties on the right, but the vast majority of British people will reject it as an assault on our common values.'