STORY
Reform UK has been accused of treating immigration policy as a political punishment after Zia Yusuf announced that a future Reform government would prioritise migrant detention centres in Green Party controlled areas. Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, said the party would not put migrant detention facilities in constituencies with Reform MPs or in areas where Reform controlled the council. He said that, of the remaining areas, Green controlled councils and Green parliamentary constituencies would be prioritised, adding that voters would “get what they vote for”.
Reform says the centres would form part of its plan to deport “all illegal migrants”, with proposed facilities holding up to 24,000 people. The announcement has prompted criticism across party lines, with opponents saying it turns asylum and deportation policy into an explicit threat against communities that vote the wrong way. The Green Party described the plan as “abhorrent”, while Labour chair Anna Turley called it a “grotesque policy” and accused Nigel Farage’s party of betraying basic democratic principles by threatening to punish places where people did not support Reform.