Farage drops vow to deport women and child small boat migrants

Nigel Farage has retreated from his pledge to deport "absolutely anyone" arriving in the UK on small boats, just 24 hours after a combative press conference that led to accusations of ugly and destructive rhetoric.

- Libby Brooks

Farage previously announced plans to deport hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in the first five years of a Reform government, and to pay despotic regimes such as the Taliban to take them back.

He also said: "Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival, will be detained."

Speaking near Edinburgh yesterday, however, when asked whether his comments on securing women's safety in the UK rang hollow when he had committed to deporting women and girls back to countries where they faced oppression and sexual violence, Farage said that was not true.

At an event to introduce the MSP Graham Simpson as the latest defection from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform, Farage said: "We're not even discussing women and children at this stage, there are so many illegal males in Britain."

Asked if that meant women and children were exempt from the plans, he said: "I didn't say exempt forever, but at this stage it is not part of our plan for the next five years."

Farage similarly abandoned his proposal to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement after political parties in Northern Ireland condemned his comment as reckless and irresponsible.

The Reform leader said: "The Northern Ireland situation is deeply complex" and "that will not be at the forefront of what we do".