Overview
- Reform UK promoted a pledge to place new migrant detention and deportation centers in Green‑held constituencies and councils and launched a postcode tool that flags those areas as priorities.
- Party figure Zia Yusuf linked the siting plan to a drive to deport all people it labels illegal migrants, citing holding capacity of up to 24,000 at any one time.
- The scale raised questions because the UK currently houses about 30,000 asylum seekers in hotels and the entire prison population is under 100,000.
- Greens, Labour figures and others condemned the idea as grotesque, divisive and anti‑democratic, with public rebukes from Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn.
- A Times columnist argued it is trolling rather than workable policy, pointing to legal and planning hurdles for large secure sites in cities such as Brighton, Bristol and Hackney.