Restore Britain sets out plan for 30,000 detention places for illegal arrivals
Rupert Lowe's party says every illegal arrival would be held until deported, in three new centres to be built within a year at a cost of up to £5.7 billion.
Restore Britain has published a plan to build detention centres capable of holding every person who enters the UK illegally until they are deported.
Rupert Lowe, the party's leader, announced the policy on X at 10:08 BST on Monday 12th October. He wrote: "Restore Britain has published our new policy to construct detention facilities capable of securely detaining every single illegal arrival. Outlining a detailed step-by-step plan to keep these third world invaders off our streets, ready for deportation."
The 45-page paper, The New Illegal Arrivals Detention Estate, says illegal immigration "will cease when we cease to offer any social, economic or practical incentives to those considering illegal entry".
The main points
- Everyone detected entering illegally would be detained until they are removed. The party says this would act as a deterrent.
- Restore would build 30,000 places across three centres of about 10,000 each, with room to expand.
- All 30,000 places would be ready within 12 months, with the first sections opening between months six and nine.
- The centres would use factory-built modular buildings on government land. The Army's Royal Engineers would oversee the technical work, and civilian contractors would do the building.
- The paper says the centres would "ideally" be offshore, apart from initial screening.
- A new law, called the "Immigration Detention Estate (Delivery) Act", would give the powers needed, including faster planning decisions.
- Building would cost an estimated £3.5 billion to £5.7 billion. Running the centres would cost £1.3 billion to £1.8 billion a year.
- The party compares this with about £1.59 billion a year to house 30,000 people in asylum hotels, based on Home Office figures. It says this is a comparison of estimates, not proven savings.
- About 10,500 to 14,000 staff would be needed to run the centres.
- The aim is for small boat crossings to fall by 90 per cent within 12 months of the system starting.
- Conditions would be "austere and purely functional". The paper says: "This will be no holiday camp."
How it fits with other policies
The paper is one of three linked Restore immigration policies. It sits alongside the party's 2025 Mass Deportations paper, which deals with people already in the UK illegally, and a maritime plan for a new Coastal Command.
It says new arrivals would ideally be deported within 24 hours. It accepts this "will not be achieved" in most cases because of identity checks, travel documents and return agreements.
The paper also says the centres could later be used for legal migrants under Restore's wider plans. It says changes to their status would leave "millions of people" "effectively illegal overnight", and that those who do not leave voluntarily would face detention before removal. Mr Lowe set out that wider aim earlier on Monday, saying a Restore government would remove "millions of migrants who arrived legally".
The paper says the facilities could eventually become prisons once migration has been "definitively reversed".
It also notes that the detention powers are "policy proposals, not yet enacted", and would need new legislation.
Sources
Image: Restore Britain, via X