‘This isn’t a manifesto – it’s a fantasy, written on the back of a fag packet.’
Nigel Farage claimed he will halve crime in five years if his party wins the next election, only to have his pledge torn apart just hours after making the announcement.
Speaking at a Reform UK press conference alongside MP Sarah Pochin and newly defected councillor Laila Cunningham, Farage gave a fearmongering speech declaring Britain is “facing nothing short of societal collapse” due to rising crime.
Farage pledged £17 billion in spending to fund his ‘crime-cutting’ policies if Reform gets elected in 2029.
The Reform UK leader listed a series of policy pledges – including building five ad-hoc “Nightingale” prisons, funding an additional 30,000 police officers over five years and introducing life sentences for anyone convicted of more than three serious offences.
He claimed he would pay for these policies by scrapping HS2 and net zero.
Farage also borrowed from Donald Trump’s Authoritarian playbook again, proposing to send up to 10,000 “serious offenders” abroad to serve their time.
He said Albania and Estonia were prepared to take prisoners, and that he would also look to send inmates to El Salvador, as Trump is doing.
He also said that inmates from overseas would be sent back to their homelands.
Farage even attacked official crime data, calling it “completely false” and claiming that crime is not falling as the Crime Survey for England and Wales indicated.
He said if you look at police-recorded crime, which does not have official status because of concerns about its quality and consistency, crime is going up.
Responding to Farage’s proposals, Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Farage’s sums don’t add up…again! Reform’s crime plan suggests prison places can be provided at £25,000, when the real cost is £40,000. This isn’t a manifesto – it’s a fantasy, written on the back of a fag packet.”
Labour Party chair Ellie Reeves said: “Nigel Farage repeatedly tried to block tough measures to make our streets safer. Reform is more interested in headline-chasing than serious policy-making in the interests of the British people.
“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. The public deserves better than ill-thought through slogans and unfunded policy commitments.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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