Yorkshire MP says Tories would consider doing deportation deal with Taliban
The Conservatives would “potentially” strike a deal with the Taliban to return Afghan Channel migrants, party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake has said.
The Thirsk and Malton MP’s comments come after Nigel Farage raised the possibility of Reform UK negotiating a returns agreement with the Afghan government if his party came to power.
Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch had refused to say whether she would consider such an agreement, but when asked yesterday if the party would consider a returns deal with the Taliban, Mr Hollinrake told Times Radio: “Well, potentially, yes.”
But he later said such a deal would be “very expensive” and have “very significant” human rights consequences, adding that the previous government’s proposal of deporting people to Rwanda had been “a better way of doing that”.
The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship which took over Afghanistan in 2021, have banned women and girls from education beyond primary school, and also from being heard in public.
Amnesty International has said the Taliban carry out torture and extra-judicial killings on opponents, some of whom have fled to the UK to seek asylum.
On Tuesday, Reform UK said it would launch a policy of “mass deportations” if it came to power, removing up to 600,000 people from the UK over five years and providing a “deterrent” to people seeking to cross the Channel in small boats.
As part of that drive, the party said it would make the Foreign Office’s “highest priority” securing returns agreements with other countries including Afghanistan to “take back their illegal migrants”.
The party said this process would include financial incentives for countries accepting deportees, but Mr Farage refused to answer questions on what he would offer the Taliban or other regimes such as Iran to secure a deal.
A Taliban official told The Daily Telegraph: “We are ready and willing to receive and embrace whoever he [Nigel Farage] sends us.”
The proposal brought criticism from the Liberal Democrats, whose deputy leader Daisy Cooper described it as a “Taliban tribute plan” using “British taxpayers’ cash to fund their oppressive regime”.
But the Government did not rule out such a policy, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying it was “not going to take anything off the table in terms of striking returns agreements with countries around the world”.
In the 12 months up to June 2025, Afghans made up 15% of small boat arrivals – the most common nationality arriving by that method ahead of Eritreans, Iranians and Syrians.
The UK has not recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan since the group seized Kabul in 2021 and re-established a regime based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law.
Mr Farage did U-turn on part of his announcement yesterday, saying women and children would not be included.
On Tuesday, the Reform leader said: “Women and children, everybody on arrival, will be detained.”
However, in Scotland yesterday he claimed that he had been “very, very clear” that the party was focused on “illegal males” and “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
Mr Farage then said later that single women “will be detained and deported”.