Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has proposed that all foreign prisoners are sent to serve their sentences abroad in order to scrap Labour’s early release scheme.
Farage said his party was exploring options with third countries over renting prison spaces, including El Salvador, which he said Reform chairman Lee Anderson would visit soon for initial talks.
Reform said removing foreign nationals from the prison estate, as well as building emergency “Nightingale” prisons, would enable changes to be made to sentencing laws so that serious criminals serve out their full terms.
Labour said the plan “does nothing” for the current situation as it would take years to arrange renting prison places overseas.
Under Reform’s plans, foreign criminals handed non-custodial sentences would be deported to their country of origin.
Those with custodial sentences would serve all of it out in their home country, or a third country offering rented prison spaces if they refuse to take them.
The party has previously suggested Kosovo and El Salvador as possible options, with Farage suggesting on Monday that Estonia and Lithuania presented “Baltic state options as well”.
There were 10,134 foreign nationals held in custody in England and Wales at the end of June, representing 12% of the total population.
Reform claims its proposals for foreign prisoners would free up more than 10,000 prison spaces, but its policy document does not explain whether it would apply to remand prisoners awaiting trial, which make up around a third of that number.
Both Farage and home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf did not address this point when asked to do so at a press conference to unveil the plans on Monday.
