Nigel Farage has opened talks with El Salvador over plans to send thousands of foreign criminals currently held in British prisons to the Central American country if Reform UK enters government.
A Reform UK delegation is expected to travel to El Salvador later this year for discussions with government officials over whether the proposal could be put into practice.
The plans would represent a major expansion of Farage’s existing prison policy, which initially focused on sending some of Britain’s most serious offenders, including convicted murderers and rapists, to prisons overseas.
El Salvador's brutal prisons.
Reform now wants to remove around 10,000 foreign nationals currently serving sentences in UK prisons and send them to third countries to complete their sentences.
The party argues that doing so would free up thousands of desperately needed prison places at a time when the system continues to face severe pressure.
Initial discussions have already reportedly taken place with the government of El Salvador over the possibility of Britain paying to use prison capacity in the country.
Reform chairman Lee Anderson is expected to lead a delegation of party officials to El Salvador later this year as part of further feasibility discussions.
The proposal would follow a similar approach taken by Donald Trump in the United States, whose administration reached an agreement with El Salvador to send migrants to the country.
That agreement proved highly controversial, particularly because of concerns surrounding conditions inside El Salvador’s prison system and the treatment of detainees.
The announcement comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces growing pressure over Labour’s early release scheme, which will allow thousands of prisoners to leave jail after serving around a third of their sentences.
Sex offenders have since been excluded from the scheme, but controversy remains over other serious offenders who could still benefit.
Two of the men convicted over the killing of PC Andrew Harper are expected to be released despite more than 800,000 people signing a petition calling for them to remain behind bars.
Farage is also expected to announce plans to create 12,000 additional prison places through temporary facilities described as “Nightingale prisons”.
Reform says the additional capacity would allow the government to keep serious offenders behind bars for longer while ending the use of early release for dangerous criminals.
The party also wants to bring back short prison sentences for offences including shoplifting as part of a wider overhaul of sentencing and the prison system.
Reform UK’s Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the party intends to deport all 10,000 foreign nationals currently held in British prisons and have them serve their sentences in countries such as El Salvador.
He said the prison capacity freed up by the policy would then be used to ensure serious criminals remain behind bars rather than being released early.