Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf announced a series of immigration-based policies that a Reform UK government would deliver for the people, including steps to reduce immigration to a net negative and to block new arrivals from countries that refuse the repatriation of their illegals, like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In his first major address since being tapped as Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary, Zia Yusuf said on Monday: “At the heart of any civilised nation lies the social contract, the simple understanding that binds people together, you get up early, you work, you pay your taxes, you play by the rules, you raise your children to know right from wrong, and you obey the law. In return, the state owes you something basic, a non-negotiable, a country that still exists, borders that mean something, streets that are safe, a home that is recognisably yours. If the state cannot guarantee that, then it has broken its contract with its own people.”
“Look at what the legacy parties have done to Britain, take a look at our streets, our towns, our cities. Our borders have been left open and undefended, knife crime stalks entire neighbourhoods, English girls were raped on an industrial scale while those in authority looked the other way. Tens of thousands of men have arrived on our shores and have been given hospitality at the taxpayer’s expense… that social contract has not been merely broke, it has been shattered.”
To reverse this, Yusuf said that a Reform UK government would end the era of mass migration and would look to deport all illegal migrants from the United Kingdom, including over 600,000 during its first term in office. This would contribute to Britain becoming a net negative immigration country for the first time in decades.
Additionally, the Shadow Home Secretary said that his government would also introduce visa bans for countries that refuse to take back their illegals. This would be including Afghanistan, Eritrea, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria, all of whom have large illegal migrant populations in Britain, he noted.
To further facilitate the removal of those who “have no right to be here”, Yusuf said that a Reform government would immediately withdraw from the deportation-blocking European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and derogate from any other international treaty that has been used by activist attorneys to stymie removals. On top of that, Yusuf also announced plans for the construction of a detention centre that could hold up to 24,000 illegals while they await removal and the establishment of a UK Deportation Command to identify, detain, and deport illegal migrants.
Addressing some of the pull factors driving the influx of illegals into the country, Yusuf said that a Reform government would introduce “Polanski Law” — named after the far-left leader of the pro-mass migration Green Party, Zack Polanski. The law would criminalise an act of assistance for illegal migration with up to two years in prison. This would end the “Green Party endorsed charity industrial complex” from using the guise of humanitarian action to facilitate illegal immigration to the UK.
Turning to the social aspects of the multicultural project foisted on the British public, the Shadow Home Secretary said that his department would overhaul the anti-terror Prevent programme, so that it focuses on the “real” threats facing Britain, notably Islamist extremism. This would include the automatic search of residences for people with multiple referrals.
Tackling Islamism would also include banning groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as terrorist organisations, he said.
Yusuf also announced plans to protect the Christian heritage of Britain by banning other faiths from purchasing churches for the purpose of converting them into other places of worship, such as mosques. The government would do this by automatically granting churches protection for historical buildings, requiring their upkeep and prohibiting their conversion to other uses.
Another major brief for a potential Yusuf-led Home Office would be crime. He said that a Reform government would amend Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to allow senior police officers to deploy stop-and-search measures in crime hotspots for up to 30 days, compared to the current maximum of 2 days. Yusuf said that this measure will be critical in getting knives off the streets of Britain.
“Decades of Tory and Labour betrayal have broken Britain. There is a national security emergency at our borders, an epidemic of knife crime on our streets, public services collapsing under the weight of mass immigration and Islamist extremism being allowed to spread,” Yusuf said.
“Only Reform UK will do what is needed to fix our country. We will secure our borders, deport those here illegally, get the knives off our streets and make you feel safe.”
