Reform UK leader Nigel Farage outlined a pledge to suspend the country's asylum system for five years at a press conference held in Hythe, Kent, delivering the commitment from a podium positioned before a 43-foot replica of the type of dinghy used by people crossing the Channel.

The rally's central visual element was a full-scale inflatable boat that the party described as a replica of a vessel that carried 230 people across the Channel in August — a crossing Reform characterised as the largest of its kind on record. Farage outlined a proposal to suspend asylum processing throughout a first Reform UK term, under which all 90,000 outstanding applications would be rejected without case-by-case examination, with claimants — including women and children — required to leave the country.

Under a Reform administration, formal resettlement pathways — including programmes established for Afghans fleeing conflict — would be shut down. Those routes collectively admitted close to 500,000 people during the seven-year period from 2015 through 2022.

The party outlined plans to carry out a comprehensive review of people who had already been awarded refugee status, with protection set to be withdrawn from anyone who reached the country by small boat or whose home nation is now considered safe.

Farage argued that nations where security ranks as a leading concern would routinely adopt measures of this kind, presenting Reform's newest pledge as within the bounds of normal governance. In the aftermath of last month's RAF Fairford incident, Farage stated that events had borne out his earlier position — that Channel crossings posed a route through which hostile states, including Iran, could act against British security. He told Parliament on multiple occasions that intelligence available to him indicated Iran was using the channel-crossing migration route to move its agents into the country.

A cry of "Shame on you!" went up from those gathered in the crowd. Farage directed the phrase back at those who had first used it.

The party's policy document outlined that nations declining to receive deportation flights would face potential consequences including visa restrictions, trade tariffs, or the withdrawal of landing rights for their airlines in British airspace. A party spokesperson maintained that the government had fallen short on national security.

Six nations were named in the document: Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Farage raised a diplomatic dispute centring on Pakistan's decision not to accept the return of Shabir Ahmed, who was convicted in connection with the Rochdale grooming gang, and called on Pakistan to arrange the return of the individual currently residing in north-west England.

A party spokesperson indicated that visa restrictions on Pakistan would be put in place if circumstances required it, that measures targeting the London-held assets of Pakistani nationals would be pursued if circumstances called for it, that flight restrictions would be put in place if the situation called for them, and that tariffs remained a tool that would be considered under sufficiently pressing circumstances.

The Reform event also unveiled a plan to carry out immigration status checks during routine food hygiene inspections at restaurants. Under additional proposals put forward at the gathering, residents would be asked to flag suspected cases of unlawful overcrowding to authorities, while councils would be directed to draw on aerial photography as an enforcement tool.

Zia Yusuf, who holds the home affairs brief for Reform, outlined at the party event a vision in which every branch of the state would be reoriented to place the interests of British citizens at the centre of its work.

Bridget Phillipson, who chairs the Labour Party, characterised Reform's move as an attempt to draw attention away from unresolved questions about the party's funding.