Reform UK has unveiled plans to end the early release of serious offenders, deport foreign criminals to serve their sentences and rapidly expand prison capacity.
At a press conference in London today, Reform leader Nigel Farage and Reform Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf launched a new policy document titled Keeping Criminals Behind Bars. Introducing the policy, Farage described law and order as “the biggest issue in our national lives that is reported on, spoken about and debated the least.”
He said Britain had become “lawless”, pointing to both urban crime and fear in rural communities. “Everyone knows the state of law and order is considerably worse than it was five or 10 years ago”, he said.
Farage accused both old parties of creating the prison-capacity crisis. He said that, during 14 years of Conservative governments, “the net population of the country rose by six million people” but “they only built 455 new prison places”. He added that the Tories had granted early release to 158,000 prisoners, making them “very much the architects of this mess”.
Reform UK’s policy would create 22,000 additional prison places by 2031 - 10,000 by removing foreign criminals from British prisons and transferring them abroad, and around 12,000 through new modular “Nightingale prisons” built on Ministry of Defence land within 18 months of a Reform government coming to power.
Farage said foreign offenders could serve their terms in their home countries or in third countries, including Kosovo and El Salvador. “To house a foreign national offender in El Salvador will be half the cost of housing a foreign national offender in this country”, he said.
Zia Yusuf said the measures would reverse what he called “Burnham’s soft-on-crime changes” and ensure dangerous criminals “serve the entirety of their prison sentence”.
He pointed to the case of PC Andrew Harper, whose killers are set to be released early as “proof of just how broken Britain’s justice system is”.
Under Reform UK, Yusuf reiterated, “killers, rapists and violent thugs will never be released a day early”. The party would also restore prison sentences of under 12 months, which Yusuf said would overturn Labour’s “shameful attempt to effectively decriminalise theft and shoplifting”.
“British people are literally being killed because there is not enough space in our prisons”, he said. “We will keep them in jail, where they belong, and we will keep the great British people safe.”
Watch the full press conference here.
At a press conference in London today, Reform leader Nigel Farage and Reform Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf launched a new policy document titled Keeping Criminals Behind Bars. Introducing the policy, Farage described law and order as “the biggest issue in our national lives that is reported on, spoken about and debated the least.”
He said Britain had become “lawless”, pointing to both urban crime and fear in rural communities. “Everyone knows the state of law and order is considerably worse than it was five or 10 years ago”, he said.
Farage accused both old parties of creating the prison-capacity crisis. He said that, during 14 years of Conservative governments, “the net population of the country rose by six million people” but “they only built 455 new prison places”. He added that the Tories had granted early release to 158,000 prisoners, making them “very much the architects of this mess”.
Reform UK’s policy would create 22,000 additional prison places by 2031 - 10,000 by removing foreign criminals from British prisons and transferring them abroad, and around 12,000 through new modular “Nightingale prisons” built on Ministry of Defence land within 18 months of a Reform government coming to power.
Farage said foreign offenders could serve their terms in their home countries or in third countries, including Kosovo and El Salvador. “To house a foreign national offender in El Salvador will be half the cost of housing a foreign national offender in this country”, he said.
Zia Yusuf said the measures would reverse what he called “Burnham’s soft-on-crime changes” and ensure dangerous criminals “serve the entirety of their prison sentence”.
He pointed to the case of PC Andrew Harper, whose killers are set to be released early as “proof of just how broken Britain’s justice system is”.
Under Reform UK, Yusuf reiterated, “killers, rapists and violent thugs will never be released a day early”. The party would also restore prison sentences of under 12 months, which Yusuf said would overturn Labour’s “shameful attempt to effectively decriminalise theft and shoplifting”.
“British people are literally being killed because there is not enough space in our prisons”, he said. “We will keep them in jail, where they belong, and we will keep the great British people safe.”
Watch the full press conference here.
