LIVE: Nigel Farage Responds to Labour Asylum Reform

Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf hold a press conference in London after Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced radical plans to reform the UK's asylum system. Families will be deported under controversial measures announced by Shabana Mahmood on Monday, as allies of the home secretary warned Labour rebels that the party’s existence depended on tackling illegal immigration. The radical overhaul of the asylum system will see cash incentives offered to all families whose claims have been rejected to return to their home country. If they refuse to leave, the Home Office will “escalate” their cases to forcibly remove them from the UK, according to a 33-page policy document published by the home secretary.

More than two dozen MPs voiced public criticism of the reforms, including senior moderate figures such as Sarah Owen, chair of the women and equalities committee, who branded the proposals “repugnant”.

The Home Office said the plans aimed to tackle the “hesitancy” about returning families, which have created “particularly perverse incentives” for parents to send their children on small boats to the UK in order to “exploit” laws by putting down roots to thwart removal.

Mahmood will consult on her plans to rip up existing rules that do not prioritise the return of families but instead continue to give payouts until their children turn 18, even if they have exhausted all their appeals and are not co-operating with the returns process.

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