Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Saturday outlined a £10 billion programme to detain and deport migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats, saying the country faces a “national emergency”. In an interview with The Times and subsequent media appearances, the former Brexit campaigner pledged to operate five charter flights a day once in power, removing what he said would be hundreds of thousands of people who arrived illegally. Farage said his government would withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights and other refugee treaties, ending the right to claim asylum or to challenge deportations for Channel arrivals. Under the plan, up to 24,000 people would be held in prefabricated detention centres on surplus Royal Air Force bases at an initial cost of £2.5 billion, with total spending for the wider programme put at about £10 billion. Reform UK would seek bilateral agreements with Afghanistan, Eritrea, Rwanda and Albania to accept deportees and would consider offshore processing on Ascension Island if other options failed. Those willing to leave voluntarily could receive £2,500 through a proposed “self-deportation” scheme. Farage argued the measures were necessary to protect public safety, citing official data showing 37,000 small-boat arrivals last year—mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Vietnam and Eritrea—of whom only 3% were removed. Immigration and asylum now rank as the public’s biggest concern in national opinion polls, and Reform has edged ahead of the governing Conservatives since April, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to harden his own stance.