UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Immigration Minister Seema Malhotra dismisses Reform UK’s deportation plans as “gimmicks,” promising faster asylum processing and halving asylum hotel use.
As reported by The Standard, Seema Malhotra slammed Nigel Farage’s party’s immigration proposals as “gimmicks,” saying they collapse under scrutiny of key facts.
The Feltham and Heston MP said she would not comment on Mr Farage’s proposed deal with Afghanistan’s Taliban or other nations.
Earlier this week, Reform UK unveiled a plan to deport 600,000 people, relying on deals with the Taliban and Iran.
What did Seema Malhotra say about Reform UK’s immigration plans?
Seema Malhotra said,
“I’m not commenting on individual countries in this way. What I will say is that we have a policy of returning people to their countries where they are safe or, as we’ve seen in the agreement with France, to safe third countries.”
She stated,
“What’s also the case is that we’ve seen Reform’s plan unravel after just two days, and if that’s their specialist subject to see their plans unravel on the basic facts and figures, one has to ask the question about what other plans they might have.”
Ms Malhotra said,
“Whether it’s for our NHS or any other areas of our public services, what we are committed to is taking the serious action that we need and not gimmicks,”
adding,
“To make sure that we are stepping up the action we’re taking to disrupt the activity of these evil criminal gangs to make sure that we are returning those with no right to be here – over 35,000 since the last election.”
She stated,
“To make sure that we’re bringing in new powers for law enforcement and intelligence sharing with other countries through legislation we’re bringing forward in Parliament that both the Tories and Reform have voted against, and to make sure that we are urgently speeding up the processing of asylum cases, a backlog that the last government left behind in a system that was utterly chaotic.”
The migration minister said,
“Through these steps, I think what people will see is that we’re taking the action we need, and that we will see a closure to asylum hotels and to this evil criminal trade.”
When asked about alternatives to asylum hotels, she said the government is working to cut hotel dependency.
Ms Malhotra stated,
“That’s the critical bit of this and we’ve got to do that by working with communities across the country, making sure that what we’re doing is processing asylum cases much more quickly, making sure that we’re returning those with no right to be here, and making sure that we are delivering on our commitment that we made in our manifesto to see a closure to all asylum hotels in this Parliament.”
She said,
“We’ve already seen a drop from the 400 asylum hotels that we saw open at their peak under the previous Government, and seeing that now almost halved to just over 200, this is really important that we continue the work that we’re doing to make sure that we see a closure of all asylum hotels in line with our manifesto commitment in this Parliament. That’s what we’re determined to do.”
When asked if the government depends on hotels, she explained that reliance is tied to clearing the asylum cases.
The Migration minister stated,
“What we need to do is to continue that step change that we’ve seen processing asylum cases much more quickly, making sure that we’re seeing those returns for people who have no right to be here as a result also of the returns agreements that we have been signing, whether that’s with Iraq, whether that’s with France.”
She said,
“Whether that’s also in relation to the agreements and co-operation agreements we’ve got with other countries like Vietnam. When we see the results of all of those actions, when we see the new powers that are going to be coming in as a result of new legislation that we have brought in to parliament to increase intelligence sharing, to make it an offence to even supply criminal gangs, we are going to be doing much more than the previous Government.”
Ms Malhotra added,
“We’re seeing the arrests step up of those involved in criminal gangs, and we’re seeing that this evil criminal trade is disrupted that we are seeing puts lives at risk and undermine our border security.”
What did Nigel Farage say about Reform’s mass deportation plans?
Nigel Farage said around 600,000 asylum seekers could face deportation in its first parliament.
He admitted concerns over children, stating,
“I’m not standing here telling you all of this is easy, all of this is straightforward.”
Mr Farage said,
“And we had, of course, with the Windrush row, we had a situation there where people who’d come 50, 60, in fact nearly 70 years ago, had faulty paperwork. So there is an exercise of common sense that has to come in here.”
Initially, Mr Farage confirmed Reform’s plans would detain and deport women and children, but he later backtracked, saying the plan currently only targets men.
What did Zia Yusuf say about illegal entry and document destruction?
Zia Yusuf, chair of Reform’s government efficiency department, said,
“If you come to the UK illegally, you will receive a lifetime ban from ever coming back to our country, re-entering after deportation will become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.”
He stated,
“Deliberately destroying your identity documents, having come here illegally, will also become a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.”
Mr Yusuf added,
“We’ll build capacity to detain up to 24,000 illegal migrants at a time. That enables us to deport up to 288,000 illegal migrants a year. Detention will mean deportation, no chance of bail, no chance of absconding.”
What did Kemi Badenoch say about deporting women and children?
The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, announced her party would deport all women and children entering Britain illegally, surpassing Nigel Farage’s immigration policy.
She said allowing illegal migrants to stay could create “loopholes” exploitable by those acting in bad faith.
Ms Badenoch stated,
“We have said that if you come to our country illegally, then you will be deported. Now we have a plan to process people in a third country. That would include, of course, women and children, because if you start making exceptions, then you will find people finding a way to use those loopholes.”
She said,
“Of course, we want to make sure that we have an asylum system that works, but right now it is being exploited by a lot of people who are not genuine asylum seekers. They are just economic migrants, and they are taking us for a ride. It’s costing billions.”
Key facts about asylum seekers in the UK in 2025
In 2025, the UK received 111,084 asylum applications, up 14%, mostly from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Eritrea.
Small boat arrivals totalled 43,600, making up 39% of claims, with Afghans the largest group. Return rates remain low, with only 4% of arrivals sent home. In total, 2,330 people were returned, mostly Albanian nationals.