What Is Reform UK's Plan for Foreign Prisoners?

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has proposed sending all foreign national prisoners abroad to serve their sentences, either in their home countries or in other countries that would rent out prison space. The aim is to end Labour's early release scheme, which currently lets some prisoners out before their sentence is finished because jails are too full.

At a press conference on Monday, Farage and Reform UK home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf set out plans to remove foreign nationals from prisons in England and Wales. They also want to build emergency "Nightingale" prisons on Ministry of Defence land. The name comes from the temporary Nightingale hospitals built quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Reform UK said the two measures together would free up more than 10,000 prison spaces and allow sentencing law changes so that serious criminals serve their full terms. The party said the Nightingale prisons would hold about 12,000 people and would be built within 18 months (The Telegraph).

There were 10,134 foreign nationals in custody in England and Wales at the end of June. That is 12% of the total prison population (BBC News). But the party's policy document does not say whether the plan would apply to people on remand. Remand prisoners are people waiting for their trial who have not been convicted of a crime. They make up about a third of the foreign nationals in prison. Both Farage and Yusuf did not answer the question when asked at the press conference.

Under the plans, foreign criminals given a sentence that does not involve prison would be deported to their home country. Foreign criminals given a prison sentence would serve the full term in their home country. If the home country refuses to take them, they would serve the sentence in a third country that has agreed to rent out prison space. Reform UK is looking at options with third countries, including El Salvador, which Reform chairman Lee Anderson would visit soon for talks. The party previously suggested Kosovo and El Salvador as possible destinations, and Farage suggested Estonia and Lithuania as "Baltic state options".

Labour said Reform UK had "no serious answers" to the prisons crisis and that its plans would lead the system to collapse. Farage also said Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham lacks the imagination to tackle the prisons crisis (The Telegraph).

Criminal justice in the UK is run differently in different parts of the country. Prisons in Scotland are run by the Scottish Parliament, known as Holyrood. Prisons in Northern Ireland are run by the Northern Ireland Assembly, known as Stormont. So the deportation scheme would apply only to England and Wales. The Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, has its own separate responsibilities for justice matters in Wales.

The broader context here is that prisons in England and Wales have been under serious pressure for a long time. Reform UK's wider prison proposals, first outlined in 2025, would create around 30,000 prison places at a cost of £17.4 billion (BBC News).

Sending foreign prisoners abroad would require agreements between governments. These are deals that allow sentenced prisoners to be moved from one country to another to serve their time. They would need to be negotiated with each country involved. The gap around remand prisoners is also important: people awaiting trial have not been convicted, so they cannot be treated the same as sentenced prisoners under current law. The policy does not say what proportion of foreign nationals are on remand, or whether they would stay in UK custody or be included in the deportation plan.

Reform UK's own policy materials cite a figure of 10,500 foreign criminals in UK prisons. That is slightly higher than the most recent Ministry of Justice data, which records 10,134 foreign nationals in custody in England and Wales at the end of June. The party says its proposals would free up more than 10,000 prison spaces. But because the plan does not address remand prisoners, that figure may be too high if around a third of foreign nationals in prison cannot be transferred.