Reform UK's mass deportation 'like Trump 2.0' - 'We'll move at great speed'

Reform UK's deportation plans will be like "Trump mark two" the party's head of DOGE has claimed. Zia Yusuf, who this week stood alongside leader Nigel Farage as he pledged to remove 600,000 illegal migrants over five years, defended the party's use of militaristic terms such as "invasion" and "fighting age males" to describe the ongoing migrant crisis.

Critics have argued that such language deliberately distorts the motivations behind those arriving in the UK via small boats, a figure that has reached record highs in 2025. He told the Sunday Times: "The notion that politicians can determine what is going to become mainstream language is for the birds. What is the dictionary definition of an invasion? It is an incursion by a group of people in an unwanted way."

Earlier this week, Reform UK set out plans to revolutionise the asylum system if they win power at the next general election, with pledges to arrest asylum seekers on arrival, enforce automatic detention and enact forced deportation to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea.

It comes as more than 28,000 people have crossed the Channel so far this year in a record for this point as protests have been erupting outside hotels housing asylum seekers.

In the days since, Farage has backed away from claims that women and children would be deported to countries such as Afghanistan where women are unable to leave their home without a male chaperone and girls are denied education.

Yusuf, who has played a prominent role in the party's rise stood by the tough policies, citing the example of Donald Trump in the United States as a blueprint to follow as he suggested that the party would try to encourage people to leave voluntarily.

He added: "We are going to move at great speed. It'll be much more like Trump mark two than Trump mark one.

"They have been paying people to leave, and generally it's about $1,000 if they leave voluntarily, and $17,000 if they have to remove them forcibly. So it is obviously far better value for the British taxpayer."

The American president ran an election campaign centred on immigration on the country's southern border and has introduced a ruthless campaign of arrests and deportations for those in the country illegally.

In the wake of the Reform UK announcement, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister refused to condemn the controversial plans to deport illegal migrants to countries where they could face persecution, arrest, torture or even death, insisting that all options remain on the table.

The Archbishop of York however has labelled the plans "kneejerk", insisting that Farage is not offering "long term solutions."

Speaking to Sky News, he said: "We should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk 'send them home'.

"You haven't solved the problem, you've just put it somewhere else and you've done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country."