Nigel Farage has claimed he can halve crime as he warned that parts of British society are ‘collapsing’.
The Reform leader insisted he could achieve the massive reduction within five years, suggesting there would be a New York-style ‘zero tolerance’ approach.
At a press conference in London, Mr Farage pointed to shoplifting and muggings in London, and argued that large numbers of immigrants were making the streets less safe.
However, Mr Farage faced questions about the cost of the proposals, with criticism that Reform is making huge promises without saying how they would be funded.
He estimated that there would need to be £17.4billion spent over the next Parliament, but said the country could not ‘afford’ to tackle crime – which was costing far more.
Mr Farage said the police would be required to investigate all crimes – and see serious offenders spend years more behind bars in ‘proper justice’.
Measures include the introduction of ‘saturation stop and search’ in high crime areas, with as many as one in five people stopped to send out a message that crime will not be tolerated.
Nigel Farage insisted he could achieve the massive reduction within five years, suggesting there would be a New York-style ‘zero tolerance’ approach
Thousands more prison places would be built on disused Ministry of Defence land to end the need for early release.
The most serious offenders could be forced to serve their time in jails overseas, including in El Savador’s notorious supermax prisons.
He acknowledged he had not yet spoken to the authorities there, but stressed they were already willing to take prisoners from the US.
Mr Farage said he was in talks with Albanian leader Edi Rama about taking back all nationals serving sentences in the UK.
The MP committed to recruiting 30,000 new police officers, ending early release for prisoners convicted of serious violent, sexual or knife offences.
Mr Farage conceded that very little of the programme will be possible until the UK leaves the European Court of Human Rights.
The worst offenders could be sent to brutal jails in El Salvador
He said: ‘We will cut crime in half. We will take back control of our streets, we will take back control of our courts and prisons.’
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Farage said he was putting criminals ‘on notice’ that Britain’s soft-touch justice system will come to an end if Reform win the next election.
Mr Farage warned that law-abiding members of the public have been left felling ‘helpless’ by the way crime has been ‘normalised’ in recent years – and pledge to ‘take back control of our streets from the criminals who currently plague them’.
‘Reform UK will be the toughest party on law and order this country has ever seen,’ he wrote.
