Reform seeking to copy Trump's victimisation and persecution agenda

The Guardian reports that Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson vowed to face down “progressive outrage”.

The paper says that Zia Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary” at a press conference in Dover, said mass deportations carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command would not trigger the same kind of violent showdowns seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK. He also described the number of migrants arriving in the country as an “invasion”.

His remarks came as Reform set out plans to tackle immigration, including mass deportations, expanded surveillance powers and a ban on the conversion of churches into mosques.

The party also wants to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa. There would also be a new rule mandating automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three “separate, corroborating authorities”, the party said.

Yusuf said the proposed UK Deportation Command would have the capacity to detain 24,000 people at any one time and deport up to 288,000 annually, operating five flights a day.

This incendiary and inaccurate language is a clear attempt by Reform to gather support by stirring up community division, hatred and suspicion, their proposed solutions contain echoes of 1930s Germany and threatens the sort of state-sponsored violence and racism now rife in the USA. Reform's policy is a charter for authoritarianism and conflict.