A poll has found that the majority of the British public is in favour of deporting migrants who commit serious crimes as well as those who break into the country illegally.
According to a survey from pollster Find Out Now, the findings of which were shared with GB News, 84 per cent of British voters would support the government deporting migrants who commit violent crimes. This was backed by 99 per cent of supporters of the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK party.
A similar proportion of the voting public would support removing sex-offending migrants at 85 per cent overall and 96 per cent of Reform voters.
The survey went on to find that a firm majority, 66 per cent, believe that aliens who break into the Britain illegally should be sent back to their homeland. Again, nearly all Reform UK voters (99 per cent) would back the measure.
The poll comes amid a debate within Reform over the viability of “mass deportations”. During an interview last September with GB News reporter Steven Edginton, Reform boss Nigel Farage said that those who enter Britain illegally “should not be able to stay” and should never be granted refugee status.
Reform’s manifesto, which Mr Farage ran on in the last election, has also called for the “immediate deportation” of foreign criminals after their prison sentence ends and for citizenship to be stripped from “immigrants who commit crime with the exception of some misdemeanour offences.”
However, in the GB News interview, Farage said that he would not “get dragged down the route of mass deportations or anything like that”.
This has become a fault line within the party, with suspended MP Rupert Lowe suggesting that he was being sidelined by the party for taking a tougher stance on migration than Farage and Reform leadership.
Speaking to The Express earlier this week, Lowe said: “One point of disagreement within Reform was my repeated calls to deport every single illegal migrant. I am clear.
“If you are here illegally, you must be deported. If that results in one million or more eventual removals then that is what must happen. That must be the aim.
“It is that, or an effective amnesty. I choose deportations. Regardless of whether it makes some uncomfortable in Reform, this is what must happen. Deportations, and lots of them. Reportedly, sources ‘close to Nigel Farage’ were uncomfortable with my opinion. Many will find that surprising to read.”
It appears that the divide between Lowe and Farage on the issue is more style than substance, however, with both sides seemingly agreeing on the deportation of criminals and illegal migrants.
Mr Farage has admitted to asking Lowe to remove phrases such as “repatriation” or “mass deportations” from public speeches, as he argued they could evoke the idea of deporting law-abiding citizens with foreign backgrounds.
Farage has also accused Lowe of attempting to “destroy” Reform and of using the issue to curry favour with X boss Elon Musk, who has previously suggested Lowe should take over the party from Farage. Lowe was suspended from the party earlier this month over allegations of threats made to party chairman Zia Yusuf. The suspension controversially came in the wake of Lowe openly criticising Farage in the press.
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