- Zia Yusuf has pledged to stop the illegal Channel crossings
completely in his first 100 days as Home Secretary.
- A Reform-led government would deploy the Royal Navy and
implement Operation Fortress to stop the illegal migrant invasion
and fix our borders.
- The party would also implement Operation Restoring Justice to
identify, detain and deport every illegal migrant currently in
the UK.
- Operation Restoring Justice will enable a Reform UK
government to deport 24,000 a year, 288,000 a year over a million
in the first term of a Reform UK government.
Reform UK has pledged to stop the boats entirely in its first 100
days in government by immediately enacting Operation Fortress and
deploying the Royal Navy to secure the English Channel.
Zia Yusuf, the party's Shadow Home Secretary, announced during
his speech at the Reform UK 2026 National Conference that
Operation Fortress Reform UK's plan to rescue illegal migrants in
the Channel and return them safely to France will be enacted
immediately after the election of a Reform UK government.
This will encompass the immediate creation of a naval-led joint
forces command, emergency legislation to give the armed forces
necessary powers, creating an integrated surveillance command
that gives the armed forces and Home Office the real-time ability
to track all incoming small boats, and controlled interceptions
and escorted returns to the French or Belgian coast.
During his speech, Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia
Yusuf said:
Once elected, a Reform government will deliver more
transformative change in our first 100 days than any
administration in British history: We will deploy the Royal Navy
to stop the boats and return anyone attempting to cross back to
France. We will go from having open borders, to the most secure
borders on earth. We will launch the largest mass deportation
operation in modern history, removing every single foreign
national who entered this country illegally.
Operation Fortress will work in conjunction with Operation
Restoring Justice a five-year emergency programme intended to
identify, detain and deport illegal migrants in the UK. This plan
combines an uncompromising legal reset with national scale
enforcement through a new UK Deportation Command and is intended
to act as a deterrent, ensuring would-be illegal migrants know
that any attempt to arrive in the UK will be met with swift
removal.
The estimated population of people with no lawful right to remain
in the UK now almost certainly stands above 1,000,000. On current
numbers, almost 100,000 more people will cross the Channel
illegally without any vetting before the end of the Parliament a
number equivalent to the population of Lincoln.
Notes to editors:
Please click here for Zia Yusuf's
full speech
