Farage pledges target to halve crime if Reform enters government
Proposals to recruit more police officers and create new prison places contribute to the estimated £3.48 billion annual bill for the party's plans on crime and justice.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster on Monday, Mr Farage said: 'Reform will be the toughest party on law and order and on crime that this country has ever seen.
'We will aim to cut crime by half in the first five years of Reform government. We will take back control of our streets. We will take back control of our courts, of our prisons.
'If you're a criminal, I am putting you on notice today that from 2029 or whenever that may be, either you obey the law or you will face very serious justice,' he added.
Documents handed out at Monday's press conference show that the party estimate a £17.4 billion cost over the course of a five year parliament for their plans, with a £3.48 billion annual cost.
Plans to recruit 30,000 more police officers take up the biggest chunk of this bill, estimated at £10.5 billion overall.
Mr Farage has pledged 12,400 new prison places on MoD land at a cost of £5 billion, and five new 'Nightingale Prisons' to be built with the assistance of the Army.
He also wants to see more than 10,000 more prison places freed up by deporting foreign criminals to their country of origin through bilateral agreements, and Mr Farage claimed he was 'in conversation with Edi Rama', the Albanian prime minister over prisoners.
I accept Prime Minister @EdiRamaal 's invitation to visit Albania as his guest of honour.
We will discuss the return of Albanian prisoners. pic.twitter.com/PREL64fbfr
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 30, 2025
The two leaders have been involved in a social media spat over the matter.
In a video on social media posted last month, Mr Farage said he would visit Albania and 'report back' after an invitation from Mr Rama.
In response, Mr Rama said: 'I genuinely hope your upcoming visit to Albania inspires you to fight for ideas, rather than against people — in the spirit of the great liberal tradition your country has long stood for.'
The party also wants prison places overseas in places such as El Salvador, a 'dynamic prisons' policy that the party estimates will cost £1.25 billion over the course of a parliament.
Mr Farage said that he would be prepared to take back British criminals who are in foreign prisons as part of his plans.
He told reporters at the press conference that 'of course we're prepared to take British prisoners from other parts of the world.
'That's fair, right and proper.'
Mr Farage pledged that Monday's event was the start of a six-week campaign on law and order, as Parliament is about to begin its summer recess break.
Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves claimed 'Reform is more interested in headline-chasing than serious policy-making in the interests of the British people'.
She added: 'Farage's Reform MPs voted against the Labour Government's landmark Crime and Policing Bill which tackles antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, violence against women and girls, knife crime, and child abuse.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
UK's Starmer to hold urgent talks over Gaza 'humanitarian catastrophe'
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany over the situation in Gaza, which he described as an "unspeakable and indefensible" humanitarian catastrophe. In a strongly worded statement late on Thursday, Starmer said he would discuss with partners "what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need," and called on Israel to allow aid into the Palestinian enclave. "The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said. "We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay," he added, referring to France and Germany. Gaza's health authorities have said over 100 people have died from starvation, most of them in recent weeks. More than 100 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, have said mass starvation is spreading in Gaza even as tons of food and other supplies sit untouched just outside the enclave. Israel, which cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March and reopened the flow with new restrictions in May, says it is committed to allowing aid in but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. Starmer said he supported U.S., Qatari and Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. "A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution," he said.
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
No fear or favours: how Corbyn and Sultana's party could blow up British politics
New political parties have a patchy record in British politics. Take Change UK, which launched amid much fanfare in the spring of 2019 and had disbanded by the end of the same year. So can Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana fare any better? In part it depends on the question you ask. The new and as-yet unnamed leftwing party formally announced by Corbyn and his fellow ex-Labour MP on Thursday, has one major advantage at its disposal: the former Labour leader's very strong public profile. According to a rolling YouGov poll of politicians' name recognition, Corbyn is known by 98% of voters, more than Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage. 'Everyone knows who Jeremy Corbyn is, everyone knows who he stands for. And with any new party, that is not even half the battle. It's three-quarters of the battle,' said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University. 'A lot of people don't like what he stands for, but that doesn't matter, because he's not aiming for everyone.' That is the second likely advantage for the organisation, launched under the interim title of 'Your Party'. Unlike Change UK, a collection of centrist MPs who defected from Labour and the Conservatives, or indeed unlike Corbyn's task when he led Labour, there is no need to temper opinions to court the middle ground. Co-led by Corbyn and Sultana, the party is explicitly aiming itself at left-leaning voters who until now are likely to have backed Labour, the Greens or the collection of Gaza-focused independents who saw off Labour candidates in four constituencies in last year's election. 'With the best will in the world, not even Zarah Sultana, I suspect, is expecting Jeremy Corbyn to be the next prime minister,' Ford said. 'That's not the purpose of it. The purpose of it is to offer an outlet for those who think Labour have driven too far to the right. So he doesn't have the same problem that he and his advisers had a few years ago.' Polling before the party launched suggested it could gather as much as 10% of the vote nationally. However, new parties traditionally struggle to maintain momentum, and turning polls into votes relies on building an effective campaign machine, which is tricky to do from scratch. All this could make for a complex picture at a constituency level, with Ford noting that it could variously make electoral life harder or easier for Labour MPs, depending on the location and context. For example, even a 5% haul for a Corbyn-Sultana candidate could mean the difference between Labour win or a loss to the Conservatives or Reform UK. The new venture could also scupper the Greens in their hopes of taking seats from Labour in the 40 areas where they finished second in 2024, given its likely appeal to some Green voters. The Greens have dismissed the opening statement from the new party for making 'only a passing glance to the climate crisis', saying this left them stuck in the past, and it is possible that Corbyn's main electoral hunting ground will be voters sympathetic to the Gaza-focused independents. The only Labour response has been a brief and scathing party source quote about the electorate having 'twice given its verdict on a Jeremy Corbyn-led party', in the 2017 and 2019 elections. But the new party is different in its aims, and, politically, 2025 is not 2019. An ostensibly new party, Reform UK, is leading the polls, even if it is Nigel Farage's third incarnation of Ukip, which can trace its history back more than 30 years. And voter loyalties, which were once relatively fixed, are more fluid than ever. One thing, however, is constant: the identity of the co-protagonist. Corbyn has a name, but also political baggage, and a reputation for occasional prickliness and falling out with people. The launch of the new party has been slightly stumbling, with allies of Corbyn making plain their annoyance when Sultana announced herself as co-leader of a new group in June. It is also unusual to launch a new party without having agreed on a name. Can Corbyn and Sultana confound the historical odds? To an extent it doesn't entirely matter. In the currently fragmented multiparty world, even moderate success could have a disproportionate impact.
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
How violent protests in Epping are being fuelled by disinformation
Enjoying beers in the afternoon sunshine on Epping High Street, the three local men were adamant about recent events in the town. Not only had Essex police used their own vans to 'bus in' antiracism counter-demonstrators last week to Epping, insisted one of the men, but masked undercover police officers had been among the 'lefties'. 'They were masked up and looked like foot-soldiers. Anyone who works in security will also pick up on how they were standing. If you looked you could see they held their hands together to give a discreet thumbs-up sign,' said the man, reluctant like so many other local people to go on the record, but who gave his name as 'Steve Davis'. The only problem with this analysis was: it appeared to be entirely wrong. Essex police has 'categorically' denied that it bussed in antiracism protesters. The suggestion of state-sponsored 'false flag' provocateurs – a frequent trope advanced on niche corners of social media at times of tensions on the streets – was also dismissed. The denials have often come too late to stop the conspiracies taking hold. They have been eagerly spread by the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and also carried on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. Disinformation has been one of the most alarming characteristics of the violent protests in Epping, whose focus has been the use of the Bell hotel to house asylum seekers. Local people have continued to turn out for the protests, which were sparked after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault – but far-right activists have played a key role in promoting them online. Activists from groups including Homeland, Patriotic Alternative and the neo-Nazi White Vanguard movement have been present. Online misinformation and disinformation originating on niche corners of X has been amplified – seemingly without attempt to corroborate whether it are true – by politicians such as Farage and commenters from the GB News channel. Video clips of Stand Up to Racism protesters being taken out of Epping last Thursday in police vans, after they were surrounded by groups of men who threw projectiles at them and the police, were quickly repurposed on social media – and presented as if they were images of protesters being transported from Epping station. In fact, as Essex police has confirmed, the Stand Up to Racism protesters had made their way on foot from the station earlier in the day, while police escorted them on foot to enable them to exercise a right to protest. By Friday, however, rightwing commenters such as the ex-GB News presenter Dan Wootton were also misrepresenting the footage. 'They actually escorted people in police vans,' Wootton told the viewers of the online show he set up after leaving GB News. On Wednesday, Farage posted the same footage on X, saying: 'This video proves [police] transported leftwing protesters to the Bell hotel in Epping' and calling for the resignation of the Essex police chief constable, Ben-Julian Harrington. The force issued a statement saying this was categorically untrue, while Harrington made pointed comments in a press conference where he urged commenters to be responsible for what they said online, adding that it had 'real-world consequences'. Farage modulated his language after he was contacted by the Guardian on Wednesday, saying the police were 'escorting and bussing masked thugs to and from the protest', but his original tweet remains on X. Later on Thursday, and in a tweet shortly after 10pm on Wednesday, Farage went on GB News to say he had received a call from a police officer who was in charge of the operation to say he was wrong. 'If I was slightly out on accuracy I apologise but I think the gist of what I was saying was right,' he said. By then, however, the misinformation had spread like wildfire and done 'real damage', according to Lewis Nielsen of Stand Up to Racism. 'It is a complete lie to say, as Farage has claimed, that Stand Up to Racism protesters were 'bussed in'. We are mobilising antiracists, trade unionists, campaigners and faith groups against the far right in Epping,' he said. Yet more conspiracies – some outlandish, others more minor but corrosive – continue to circulate. They include unsubstantiated accusations that asylum seekers staying at the hotel are routinely shoplifting in Epping. Other claims – accompanied by pictures of the Stand Up to Racism protest – include one that Epping police has been paying protesters £40 'for three hours' work. It was among conspiracy theories being disseminated in online spaces including the Epping Says No! Facebook group, which has more than 1,600 members. Its administrators include activists from the far-right Homeland party, Adam Clegg and Callum Barker. The claims of undercover police officers being among the antiracism protesters have been accompanied by clips and pictures zeroing in on pictures of some of those protesters. The claims were also denied by Essex police, which has been trying to combat what it calls 'myths' in videos fronted by an assistant chief constable. The force specifically picked out the claim that there were 'police decoys in the crowd encouraging violence', rebutting it on its YouTube channel. Nielsen also denied the claim: 'It is categorically false that the police are involved in Stand Up to Racism protests, or play any role in organising them. If anything our protests – like others – have faced police repression in recent years.'
