Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, has proposed sending violent British criminals to foreign prisons — including El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) — to cut costs and address rising crime in the UK.
“It is astonishing that it costs nearly £52,000 a year to keep a prisoner in the UK. You could send a child to Eton with that money,” Farage said during a speech on law and order. He suggested that even notorious inmates like Ian Huntley could be relocated to prisons abroad.
Though Farage admitted there are no formal talks with El Salvador, he referenced past U.S. deportations under Donald Trump that included transferring over 250 Venezuelans to CECOT earlier this year.
The UK government quickly dismissed the proposal. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Farage’s ideas “unfunded and lacking detail,” insisting that the focus remains on improving the national prison system.
Farage’s broader plan includes creating 10,000 prison spots overseas, deporting 10,000 foreign inmates, hiring 30,000 new police officers, and restoring stop-and-search policies. The proposal would cost £17.4 billion over five years, funded by cutting major infrastructure and environmental projects.
“Without bold action,” Farage warned, “parts of our country will face social collapse.”