Nigel Far­age has prom­ised the mass deport­a­tion of irreg­u­lar migrants and to take the UK out of the European Con­ven­tion on Human Rights.

The Reform UK leader said his party would also dis­ap­ply the 1951 UN Refugee Con­ven­tion for a five-year period, along with “any other bar­ri­ers” that would pre­vent the deport­a­tion of irreg­u­lar migrants to their home coun­tries or a safe third coun­try.

Speak­ing in Oxford­shire yes­ter­day, Far­age said urgent action was needed to tackle pub­lic con­cerns about irreg­u­lar migra­tion, which has risen up the polit­ical agenda amid protests over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

“We are not very far away from major civil dis­order,” he said. “We have to leave the ECHR, no ifs, no buts . . . We have to repeal the Human Rights Act.”

The ECHR and the Human Rights Act, which require the courts to take into account rul­ings by the European Court of Human Rights, have been cited to block the deport­a­tion of asylum seekers.