Reform UK has outlined a policy commitment to suspend asylum processing throughout the United Kingdom for the duration of a single parliamentary term, should the party take office. Under the proposal, every pending asylum claim would be cancelled and all new applications turned away, with those involved placed on a deportation list — an arrangement that Reform described as amounting to a halt of the asylum process.
The asylum tribunal system, which handles appeals in pending cases, would be abolished under the Reform plan, leaving more than 90,000 people with unresolved claims facing removal from the country. Neither humanitarian protection nor refugee status would be extended under the terms set out in the announcement.
Nigel Farage, the Reform party leader, described the UK as confronting a national security emergency, arguing that accepting further asylum seekers was untenable while the number of people in the country without authorisation — and any associated risks — remained unquantified. The party added that Home Office staff currently processing asylum claims would be redirected toward examining and reversing previously approved refugee status decisions.
Reform also outlined plans to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, and set aside the 1951 Refugee Convention in order to remove legal obstacles to its proposals.
Visa restrictions on travellers and trade levies on goods and services were among the tools the party outlined as potential instruments for compelling other nations to accept individuals earmarked for removal from the UK. Among the nations that proposed travel restrictions would place under entry bans are Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan. The announcement noted that, should those measures fall short, Reform would move to impose additional penalties — among them barring the relevant country's airlines from operating in British airspace and preventing its nationals from passing through in transit.
Where no receiving country can be found or a return to the home nation is judged unsuitable, Reform has outlined plans to pursue agreements with other countries willing to accept those individuals.
That April, Reform set out a commitment to conduct an immediate review of all asylum claims lodged over the preceding five years, contingent on the party securing victory at the next general election. Three categories of people — those holding asylum status, those who have overstayed visa conditions, and those whose home nations a Reform-led government might designate as safe — together account for an estimated 400,000 individuals who could be subject to removal proceedings. In a prior statement, the party set out a position that anyone who had crossed by small boat would face removal, with internal projections placing the potential number of such cases at up to 600,000 across a five-year period.
Bridget Phillipson, speaking in her capacity as Labour chairperson, characterised the proposals as a product of political weakness rather than principle, and contended that while Reform may calculate some partisan gain in distancing itself from those fleeing conflict and persecution, the majority of people in Britain are unlikely to regard such a stance as consistent with the values they hold. Phillipson also characterised Farage as reaching toward increasingly hardline positions at a time when the party leader faces scrutiny over finances and pressure from rival group Restore Britain.
Phillipson argued that Labour's position — reducing immigration numbers through proper enforcement of existing rules rather than dismantling the asylum framework — represented a middle path between inaction and what she characterised as the most uncompromising demands on the issue.
The Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the proposals as largely mirroring his own party's platform, contending that only the Conservatives held a viable approach to border management. Philp characterised Reform's proposals as drawing heavily from Conservative positions held roughly a year earlier, pointing to measures such as barring asylum applications from those who had entered without authorisation, dismantling the immigration tribunal, scrapping Labour's resettlement pathways, and withdrawing from the ECHR. A Conservative pledge to direct civil servants to remove 750,000 people living in the country without legal permission over a five-year period had been set out at an earlier point.
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson countered that both Reform and the Conservatives had shaped the existing asylum arrangements and stood to benefit politically from its shortcomings, citing Farage's latest announcement as an example. Wilkinson put forward the case that the EU migration and asylum pact — a framework that would see more unauthorised arrivals sent back to their home countries while responsibility for asylum seekers is shared among member states — offers a workable path toward a more orderly, fair, and managed approach to migration for the UK.
Commitments to overhaul asylum arrangements have come from both of the main parties. The Home Secretary announced in March that refugee status granted to asylum seekers would carry only temporary protection going forward, with each case subject to reassessment at 30-month intervals. During that same period, a scheme enabling refugees to take up residence in the United Kingdom was reinstated, on the grounds that establishing regulated and lawful routes into the country could reduce the number of people undertaking the Channel crossing by small boat. The Home Office announced that the UK Resettlement Scheme would reopen without delay, with roughly a quarter of those admitted under it projected to be Afghan women and girls alongside Palestinians.
