Reform UK’s pledge to locate migrant detention centres in areas that vote Green rather than Reform would be unlawful under existing legislation, legal experts have told the Big Issue.
The policy was announced in a video released days before the local elections by Zia Yusuf, the party’s shadow home affairs spokesperson, who made the announcement while walking along Brighton beach wearing sunglasses. ‘Put simply, if you vote in a Reform council or Reform MP, we guarantee you won’t have a detention centre near you,’ he said. ‘If you vote Green, there’s a good chance you will.’
Reform also launched a website called votegreengetillegals.com which allowed users to enter postcodes in likely Green-voting areas and receive a message stating the area would be ‘prioritised’ for a detention centre.
The proposal was condemned across the political spectrum, with the Green Party calling it ‘disgusting,’ Labour describing it as ‘grotesque,’ and the Conservatives suggesting it was ‘clearly made up on the spot for a social media video.’
Joelle Grogan, academic co-director at the Rule of Law Clinic and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Law Show, told the Big Issue the plan was ‘almost certainly unlawful’ on three grounds: it is irrational, because no reasonable authority would site a detention centre based purely on local voting patterns; it is unlawful, because neither planning nor immigration law grants any such power; and it is procedurally improper, because it considers irrelevant factors instead of the genuine suitability of a site.
The Big Issue also points to a relevant legal precedent. In the 1980s ‘homes for votes’ scandal, Westminster Council sold properties in areas where residents were likely to vote Conservative. The House of Lords ultimately ruled this constituted wilful misconduct.
Jeff King of University College London added that Reform’s proposal would go considerably further than that case, and that a court would be well-placed to find it was made in bad faith.
Even if Reform were to attempt to legislate around these obstacles, he said, such a bill would face a very difficult passage through parliament, particularly in the House of Lords.
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