Labour has rejected Nigel Farage's proposal to ease England and Wales's prison overcrowding by sending foreign offenders abroad, arguing Reform UK offers no credible solution to a crisis inherited from the Conservatives. The row erupted as Prime Minister Andy Burnham, three weeks into office, faces mounting pressure over an early prisoner release scheme due to take effect in September.
A Labour spokesperson dismissed Reform's approach outright, stating that keeping the public safe remains the government's foremost concern.
Keeping the public safe is and always will be Labour's first priority. The government has already made clear we are working at pace to deport foreign criminals and we're building more prison places to deliver justice for victims and keep criminals behind bars.
Reform have no serious answers to the Tory prisons crisis and would lead the system to collapse. This would result in a free for all for dangerous and violent offenders, including murderers and rapists. Nigel Farage and Reform simply can't be trusted to keep Britain safe.
What exactly is Farage proposing?
Farage has floated renting prison capacity in El Salvador, alongside deporting foreign nationals and building temporary "Nightingale prisons" domestically. According to a national broadcaster's report, Farage has now publicly extended this beyond talk of domestic reform to explicitly sending violent offenders to El Salvador as part of a wider Reform UK crime crackdown. He has said Reform party chairman Lee Anderson will lead a delegation of officials to El Salvador later this year to hold further discussions with the government there about renting prison space.
Farage has also revealed he has already spoken with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama about deporting foreign prisoners held in British jails, according to the same broadcaster. He has argued the current system is unsustainable, noting that the UK already spends close to £52,000 a year housing each prisoner domestically.
How much would Reform's plan cost, and how many places would it create?
Reform UK says its overall crime and prisons package would cost £17.4 billion over five years while generating roughly 30,000 additional prison spaces, according to a broadcaster's report. The breakdown includes 12,400 places built on Ministry of Defence land, 10,400 places freed up by returning foreign prisoners to their home countries, and a further 10,000 places created by transferring serious offenders overseas, per the same report. Farage has said the temporary "Nightingale" facilities could be constructed within 18 months on defence land if Reform were to take power, according to a report in the Express.
Why is the prisons system under such strain?
The immediate backdrop to Reform's attack is the government's own use of early release to relieve overcrowded jails, a policy that Burnham inherited and has already sought to limit. Since taking office three weeks ago, Burnham said he was pausing the early release scheme pending a review, before ultimately confirming last week that he was proceeding with a modified version. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said he had wanted to go further but that the plan represented the limit of what was achievable, adding that he could look victims in the eye and say nothing more could have been done without risking the prison system collapsing within months.
I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.
Despite that reassurance, controversy has persisted. The revised rules will reportedly not prevent two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper from early release, prompting Burnham to reportedly consider a legal carve-out to keep them in custody — a move that critics say would contradict his earlier claim that he had done everything possible. The Daily Mail has also published analysis suggesting the early release scheme could lead to around 500 additional sex offences, nearly 1,800 violent crimes and almost 36,000 thefts before the current parliament ends in 2029. The Ministry of Justice has rejected this analysis as highly speculative and based on flawed sentencing calculations, warning that without the scheme, prisons risk reaching capacity and collapsing, leaving police unable to make arrests and courts unable to remand offenders.
A Labour minister has separately dismissed Farage's prison proposals as lacking genuine solutions, characterising them as temporary and unworkable, according to a report in the Mirror. Farage has previously argued that a relatively small group of prisoners and former prisoners is responsible for a disproportionate share of crime, using this claim to support his case for tougher, longer-term detention, according to GB News.
Are there other pressures on the government this week?
Yes. Green party leader Zack Polanski has accused ministers of gross negligence over the climate crisis, warning that Britain is facing its fifth heatwave in months following an estimated 3,000 deaths linked to extreme weather. He argued that dismissing calls for urgent action while claiming supply chains remain resilient misses the severity of the situation entirely.
We are now facing the fifth heatwave in months following the recent deaths of 3,000 people in our country from extreme weather conditions.
This is the greatest crisis this country has faced since the second world war and to complacently dismiss the demands for immediate action by saying everything is under control is gross negligence, blatantly untrue and misses the severity of the crisis.
Only days after dedicated public servants talked about the need for urgent action, backed up by indisputable science, to secure our food supplies and the health of the most vulnerable, the Labour government says it's all in hand, and supply chains are resilient.
This follows Polanski's earlier warning that Burnham was failing on heatwave threats, when he described the government's response as a dereliction of duty and urged action on wildfires, droughts and water policy. He had also previously joined trade union leaders in pressing Burnham to maintain strong climate commitments and oppose North Sea drilling, citing concerns over jobs and the urgency of the climate crisis.
Separately, Burnham has announced cost-of-living measures including a ban on fake discounts and simpler rules for cancelling unwanted subscriptions, writing about the plans in an article. Some of these measures extend policies already in motion under his predecessor, Keir Starmer. Shadow chancellor Mel Stride criticised the timing, saying Labour has been slow to implement legislation the previous Conservative government had already passed.
Andy Burnham has already run out of ideas.
The cost of living didn't become a problem last week, so you have to ask why it has taken Labour so long to enact legislation passed by the previous government.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper welcomed the direction but urged the government to go further.
We Liberal Democrats have long called for stronger consumer protections and we want to see the government go further.
If the new PM is serious about this, he should introduce strengthened protections against rogue traders, make energy bills fairer by giving everyone a discount on their essential usage, and clamp down on the big supermarkets' unfair shrinkflation tactics.
Burnham is set to launch a nationwide cost-of-living tour in the coming days, with a stop expected in Port Talbot, as inflation concerns grow alongside continued criticism over the prisoner release policy. Broader questions remain over what a Burnham-led government could mean for household finances, including taxation, energy costs, transport, housing and social care.
What happens next?
Farage and Reform's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, are scheduled to hold a press conference to set out further details of the party's prison proposals, including plans to remove foreign prisoners and establish temporary Nightingale prisons, according to a report in the Express. Downing Street is also due to hold a lobby briefing later the same day. Burnham, back from holiday this week, is expected to begin his promised summer tour of the country in the near future, though no public appearance was scheduled for the day of these developments.
Key Facts
- Reform UK's prison and crime package is costed at £17.4 billion over five years, creating roughly 30,000 extra prison spaces.
- Farage has spoken with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama about deporting foreign prisoners and plans to send Reform chairman Lee Anderson to El Salvador later this year.
- The UK reportedly spends around £52,000 annually per prisoner in domestic jails.
- Burnham's revised early release scheme reportedly will not exempt two killers of PC Andrew Harper, prompting talk of a possible legal carve-out.
- The Ministry of Justice has disputed Daily Mail estimates that early release could cause 500 extra sex offences and nearly 1,800 violent crimes by 2029.
