Zia Yusuf reveals Reform plan for ‘net zero’ migration and ending Channel boats crisis

Immigration is the subject Reform believes they are stronger on than anyone else

Reform UK Shadow Cabinet announcement in London

Zia Yusuf is Nigel Farage’s choice for Home Secretary (Image: Getty)

Zia Yusuf is now responsible for Nigel Farage’s main policy offering to voters. Restoring control of Britain’s borders after years of chaos will be a critical part of Reform’s bid for power.

And if Mr Yusuf does become Home Secretary “next year”, as Mr Farage predicted, he would have to end the Channel migrant crisis once and for all.

Illegal migration

Reform’s flagship offering on illegal migration is called Operation Restoring Justice.

A new ‘UK Deportation Command’ will use data from banks, the Home Office, HMRC, police, DVLA and NHS to identify every illegal migrant, Reform said.

Reform chairman Zia Yusuf: 'Boris's immigration changes have fuelled cultural disunity'

They will then be offered £2,500 each to leave the UK during a six-month grace period.

Once the voluntary returns programme comes to an end, immigration enforcement teams will be ordered to carry out raids and arrest them.

Reform UK claims the plan will cost £10 billion to implement, but save £7 billion currently spent on illegal migration during the first five years.

Mr Yusuf said that would include £4 billion for the construction and operation of detention facilities, £1.5 billion for flying people back to their home countries and £2 billion for the Foreign Office to do returns deals with countries.

New laws introduced in a planned Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill will bar illegal migrants from claiming asylum, and the Home Secretary will have a legal duty to remove them.

It will also be illegal to destroy your identity documents, with those caught flouting the law facing jail sentences of up to five years.

The plans will be introduced on an “emergency basis” and will last for five years before being reviewed.

But Mr Yusuf will also have to convince voters the era of mass migration is over.

Net migration surged to a record high of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023. It hit 764,000 in 2022, before dropping to 649,000 in June 2024.

It fell to 204,000 in the year to September 2025 as the number of people leaving the country hit the highest level for a century.

The number of arrivals dropped below a million for the first time in three years in 2025. Some 1.47 million arrived in the UK in 2023.

Reform has vowed to scrap indefinite leave to remain and replace it with a 5-year visa.

Anyone already granted settlement rights would also have to reapply.

And, as revealed by the Daily Express, Nigel Farage will ban all foreign nationals from claiming any form of welfare.

Only UK citizens will be able to receive benefits, under a Reform government.

The party will increase the qualifying period for British citizenship to seven years.

Policing

Mr Yusuf, as Home Secretary, would also be confronted with a crime and justice crisis.

Reform has vowed to introduce “zero tolerance policing”, with a dramatic increase in stop and search.

They will also “fast track” arrests, setting up “pop-up custody centres on high streets in crime hotspots” to allow officers to be on the street for longer.

Nigel Farage’s party also wants to prioritise military veterans for an expanded police service.

Suspected violent or sexual offenders will be denied bail, and career criminals are being threatened with life behind bars if they don’t’ stop committing offences.

Serious violent offenders will also be prevented from early release.