By a Political Correspondent | October 12, 2026
Nigel Farage will today set out plans to suspend the UK’s asylum system for a full five-year parliamentary term if Reform UK wins power. The proposals would mark the party’s toughest border policy to date.
A Reform government would declare a national security emergency, ban all new asylum grants for five years, and immediately void every outstanding claim and appeal. Around 90,000 people currently in the system would be marked for deportation rather than having their cases heard. Asylum tribunals, legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes would all be scrapped. Humanitarian protection would end, and no new refugees would be allowed to settle.
Existing schemes such as Homes for Ukraine would close to new arrivals, though Ukrainians already in the country since 2022 could stay. Home Office staff would be redirected to reviewing asylum grants made over the previous five years. Reform has previously said more than 400,000 people granted status, overstaying visas or from countries it deems safe could fall within the scope of such reviews, building on earlier targets of up to 600,000 deportations of illegal arrivals.
Farage said: “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.”
To clear legal obstacles, Reform would leave the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act and disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention. Countries refusing to take back their nationals would face visa bans or tariffs. Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan have been named as likely targets. The Afghan resettlement scheme would also be reviewed, with only a small number of verified former British military collaborators protected.
Official figures show 93,525 asylum claims in the year to March 2026, roughly 40 per cent linked to small-boat crossings. The announcement comes as Reform seeks to capitalise on public concern over Channel crossings.
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