Machinery of government is not the sexiest of subjects – but it is a useful way of signalling a politician’s priorities. Rishi Sunak used his first reshuffle to rebrand the ‘Department for Energy Security’ and create a new ministry for science. Boris Johnson invented the Department for Levelling Up; Jeremy Corbyn proposed a ‘Minister for Peace.’ Now, Nigel Farage has floated his own changes to the Whitehall machine, with the creation of a new ministry for deportations. At a Dover press conference this morning, the Reform leader declared that:
We will demand a minister for deportations. It will be part of the Home Office but it will be a separate department within it. We will need to recruit new people, as the evidence at the moment suggests those who work in the Home Office would wilfully obstruct policy if we won the next general election.
The eye-catching announcement was the top line from a speech which largely reprised Reform’s greatest hits: leave the ECHR, repeal the Human Rights Act and clamp down on asylum claims.
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