Reform pledges to review all asylum claims for past five years if it wins power

Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward criticized the announcement as superficial and cruel, urging a broader look at the roots of the asylum crisis and calling for compassion and sanctuary, not insecurity and fear.

Yusuf also stated the policy would 'turn off welfare' for anyone arriving illegally, ending free accommodation and an 'endless merry-go-round' of appeals.

Home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf described a plan for modular detention capacity of 22,500 people per month, which he said would enable deportations totalling around a quarter of a million people per year.

Reform called for abolishing the right to permanent settlement in the UK after five years.

The party also wants the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to make removals easier.

Reform has previously announced it would bar anyone arriving on a small boat and suggested this could mean 600,000 deportations over five years.

Liberal Democrat immigration and asylum spokesman Will Forster condemned the five-year review as an 'impractical farce' that would slow the backlog. He suggested temporary processing centres to clear the asylum backlog within six months, enabling those with a right to stay to support themselves and those without to be returned swiftly.

Conservative members argued Reform was heavily copying Conservative policies but lacking detail. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp cited their own plan to pull out of the ECHR and deport 150,000 immigrants each year with no right to be in the UK, stating Reform was catching up without the necessary specifics.

A Labour Party spokesperson said the party is already taking action on immigration, claiming to have stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the general election and to have removed or deported nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here.

Reform UK announced an immediate review of all asylum claims from the last five years if it wins the next general election. The plan would make around 400,000 people liable for deportation and would apply to anyone granted asylum, those overstaying visas, or individuals from countries deemed safe by a Reform-led government.