Nigel Farage’s party proposed to place detention centres in places that vote for Green council leaders or MPs
Commenting on the Reform UK detention centres plan (see 10.48am) on Bluesky, Sunder Katwala, head of the British Future thinktank, says it is not just potentially illegal, but also illogical in its own terms.
There is rather inadvertent warped logic that a rival party said to favour “open borders” would mean ‘support detention centre’
While the party favouring mass deportations at unprecedented scale means ‘oppose detention centre’ anywhere nearby
These statements could have unwelcome legal consequences for a hypothetical Reform government - which may need to show that decisions which happen to match this pattern were chosen for other legitimate policy reasons, not as partisan political punishment/reward
A hypothetical future government with a thumping majority could have the powers to repeal any treaties, conventions or laws which may constrain this.
A hypothetical minority government could find itself impeded by these kinds of public statements about the motive for locating detention facilities
A more logical version of this school sixth form debating society policy might have the opposite design
* Mass Detention in Reform-voting areas proud to vote for deportations + detentions
Reform have launched a website with this “incentive” to voters in an effort to generate profile & controversy in election week
A Reform government will not put any migrant detention facilities in any constituency with a Reform MP.
Nor will we put them where Reform controls the council.
Reform keep making abhorrent announcements to distract voters from they fact they want to privatise the NHS. Greens are focused on building council housing, fixing our public services and bringing down the cost of living.
This grotesque policy reveals Reform’s contempt for all voters – including their own. Threatening to punish places where people don’t vote your way is a betrayal of basic democratic principles. Nigel Farage has sunk to a new low: he is clearly more interested in stoking division and anger than in serving the whole country.
We need to stop illegal immigration, but this is abhorrent from Reform.
Zia is proposing the siting of detention centres expressly as a form of political punishment for people and places that don’t vote Reform – not just Green, but presumably Conservative, Liberal and Labour too. (And what about Reform voters in those constituencies?)
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