Reform pledges to suspend UK’s asylum system for up to five years

Previous pledges from Reform include a review of all asylum claims from the last five years and returning all small boat arrivals.

In response to the latest announcement, Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said “closing our asylum system would cause chaos”.

“Desperate people would still arrive on our shores, but instead of entering an orderly system, they would be driven underground and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse,” he told the BBC.

All the main political parties should focus on speeding up asylum decisions “so that instead of languishing in accommodation paid for by the taxpayer, those found to be refugees can move into proper housing, start work or training, and begin contributing to their communities, while those with no right to stay can be helped to return with dignity,” he added.

Bridget Phillipson said Farage was “casting around for more and more extreme policies” as he deals with questions about finances and rival party Restore Britain.

The Labour chair said her party is showing “we can control immigration and get numbers down with serious action, not by abandoning the asylum system altogether”, adding the “right approach” is “not giving up or caving to the most extreme voices, but ensuring that the rules we have are properly enforced”.

In March, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said any asylum seeker given refugee status will now only be offered temporary protection, reviewed every 30 months.

In September, she also reopened a scheme to resettle refugees in the UK, saying she hoped that offering “safe and legal” routes would deter small boat crossings.

Reform has questioned if safe routes for Afghans and Palestinians to the UK should stay, but said it would keep a temporary settlement scheme for Ukrainians fleeing the war against Russia, as well as EU settled status with benefit cuts.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the proposals “largely copy” his party’s policies, arguing: “Only the Conservatives have a serious and credible plan to fix our borders.”

The Tories previously said they would task officials with removing 750,000 illegal immigrants within five years, under Trump-style deportation plans.

Lib Dems home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said the “UK can only restore order, control and fairness by joining the EU migration and asylum pact”, which increases the number of irregular migrants returned to their home countries and spreads responsibility for asylum seekers across the EU.