Watch the moment Reform UK’s latest policy targeting Whitehall had its feet put to the flames on GB News.
Last night, Nigel Farage’s party announced its latest pledge to prosecute civil servants if they were found to have knowingly allowed foreign sex offenders into Britain.
They could also lose their jobs and pensions under new plans drawn up by Reform’s Head of Policy, Zia Yusuf, who revealed a Reform Government would review cases spanning back over the past decade.
Home Office officials found to have committed such offences would face further sanctions, including being forced to forfeit their pensions and being subject to gross misconduct dismissal proceedings.
They could even face up to two years behind bars.
A dedicated police task force, supported by the National Crime Agency, would be established to investigate individuals, the party said.
Joining GB News to pick apart the policy, Chief Political Correspondent at The Times, Aubrey Allegretti, said the announcement was “designed to show that [the party] is serious for Government”.
He continued: “Obviously, the sort of subject matter suggests that this is quite a lot of red meat for the base.
Mr Allegretti analysed Reform’s latest announcement
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GB NEWS
“Reform has obviously done very well in the opinion polls for the last six, seven, eight, nine months, but it has kind of topped out at about 30 per cent.
“So they need to make sure that going into next year when they have a crucial set of local elections – and indeed elections in Scotland and Wales I should add that they’re hoping to do very well in – that they need to kind of keep their supporters happy.”
But GB News star Cameron Walker questioned the party’s ability to deliver on such a promise in reality.
He asked: “I’m sure this will be very popular among Reform UK supporters. It sounds all very promising if you agree with Nigel Farage.
Mr Allegretti said the policy’s enforcement would ‘prove very hard’
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PA“But, realistically in practice, could this be implemented? Is this going to make any difference?”
Responding, Mr Allegretti said: “It will prove very hard.
“There is probably a tension between the intent and how easy it would be to introduce, because of course, you’d have questions about how could you really sort of criticise a civil servant who had let somebody in following the rules that the Government had to take.”
Arguing civil servants are simply following the rules of the Government of the day, he continued: “Obviously there might be sort of red flags.
“But how would you hold a civil servant to account for something that somebody did years after they arrived in the UK based on a decision that they might have made a decade ago.
“It’s quite difficult to implement practically.”
Last month, a Home Office whistleblower claimed migrants accused of sex offences and other crimes were being granted asylum regardless of their criminal history.
They said officials were told to approve asylum claims from people who were charged with crimes as long as the prison sentence was not any longer than 12 months.