Farage vows tariffs on nations that refuse migrant returns

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Nigel Farage will this week set out Reform UK plans to impose tariffs on countries that refuse to take back migrants, should the party enter government at the next election. The move renews the party’s hard focus on immigration after a sharp drop in the polls and forms part of a wider package of strict controls aimed at stopping the small boat traffic and forcing returns.

Reform says the tariffs would pile economic pressure on states that will not accept deportees from Britain. The idea escalates earlier proposals first trailed in February for strict visa bans on people legally seeking to visit from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia until those countries agree to take back illegal immigrants and foreign criminals. Party figures believe tariffs may bite harder where visa bans alone carry less weight. The exact rate has yet to be fixed.

The latest plan was first reported by The Sunday Times and is framed as a practical lever to make returns stick. Farage is casting the package in the same blunt economic style favoured by his long-time friend Donald Trump. The i Paper notes the timing: Reform has seen support fall amid funding rows while Labour’s ratings have steadied after Andy Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street, leaving Reform second in most polls and at its weakest approval since December 2024.

Home Office figures show Channel crossings so far this year down 41 per cent on 2025 and roughly a fifth lower than in 2024 and 2023. More than 211,000 people have crossed since 2018, with around 9,700 returned to their original country since June. Net migration has already tumbled from a peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 to 204,000 in the year to June 2025, and Oxford Economics expects it to fall below 100,000 this year, the lowest since 1997.

Reform’s list targets several of the countries that have sent the largest numbers of asylum seekers in recent years. The message is straightforward: countries that will not co-operate on returns will face real economic cost, not another round of polite requests. Farage will spell out the detail in the coming days as he tries to put immigration back at the centre of the party’s offer and reverse the recent slide.

Original source: The i Paper