Zia Yusuf slams 'weak men and women who lack the spine to defend the country' as he unveils Reform's immigration plan

Reform's Home Affairs spokesman said: "For years, the Tory-Labour uni-party has looked the other way while the very fabric of our society has been under attack. We’ve been told to accept open borders.

"A country that spends £60billion a year on defence should stand powerless as men arrive in small boats day after day, we should shrug as our streets change, knife crime rises and the traditions and culture of Britain are steadily and heartbreakingly eroded.

"I say to you today, those things are not inevitable.

"They are the deliberate choices of weak men and women that lack the courage, lack the spine and lack the moral clarity to serve the country they were elected to serve.

"I do not accept this, Nigel Farage does not accept this and the British people do not accept this."

Reform UK has revealed plans to set up a UK Deportation Command if it was to enter government, with the aim to "track down, detain and deport” people in the country illegally, aiming for up to 288,000 people each year.

Mr Yusuf said it is "not true" the proposed agency will face the same issues Donald Trump’s Ice programme in the US, which saw an immigration crackdown in Minnesota lead to mass detentions, protests and two deaths.

Speaking in Dover today, he said the UK is being “invaded” by migrants as he pitched Reform’s mass deportation programme as the biggest in UK history.

Defending his choice of language, Mr Yusuf told a press conference in Dover: “I know many in the establishment gasp at that word.

“They may well clutch their pearls in the television studios, but the dictionary definition of invasion is an incursion by a large number of people in an unwanted way.

“Make no mistake, as home secretary I will end and indeed reverse this invasion, because the patience of the British people is now exhausted.”

Reform has further revealed plans to impose “visa freezes” on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if the countries refuse to take back migrants with no legal right to stay in Britain.

The party said it expects to deport more than 600,000 in its first term in government.

Reacting to the speech, shadow home secretary Chris Phlip said Mr Yusuf has “nothing new to offer beyond copying and pasting Conservative plans”.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson added that Reform’s “Trump-inspired plans for an Ice-style force will only bring chaos and disorder to Britain’s streets, not the order and control our immigration system needs”.