AIBU to think that Reform pose a real threat to UK democracy?

[Sherbs12]

Reform’s unelected chairman, Zia Yusuf, has announced that Reform will build detention centres housing immigrants waiting for deportation in areas which vote Green (or rather those which don’t Reform). They call this ‘an exercise in democratic consent’ and it’s been - rightfully - condemned by all other parties.

Last week he was threatening to ‘carpet bomb’ areas in which their MP had voted a certain way in parliament.

Obviously, this is detracting from the discovery that Farage received a £5million donation in 2024 when he seemingly changed his mind and decided to run as an MP.

So, while politics can be heated, all parties are open to criticism, we can debate the reasons behind the rise of Reform, AIBU to say that this approach from Reform is unacceptable in a democracy and an alarming indicator of how they would be in government?

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/zia-yusuf-reform-uk-migration_uk_69f8483de4b06e9242f51ba4/

I think if people are being detained and the only end result is deportation, that conditions will be very bad and that flight risk will be very high.
This is not an asylum processing centre.

I was thinking about this during the night and felt very sad as it was a new low even for Reform.
That said, it won't happen, they won't be able to build the facilities. The shame is though how much support there is online for it. I think Reform voters hate people who don't vote Reform as much as they hate immigrants.

It really is a new low - and I guess people are discussing this rather than the £5 million donation to Farage (which is why he skipped scrutiny at the weekend when he chickened out of an appearance on Laura Kuenssberg like the thin-skinned coward that he is), so it’s a price they’re happy to pay.

You can be sovereign and yet still participate in international institutions. We’re not North Korea.

Again the ECHR has overruled and hindered UK gov policy so many times. We can just leave it.

The only reason Reform want to do this is to remove a level of third party protection we all enjoy today, making it easy for them to abuse their power. It’s clear as daylight that they’re eroding legitimate legal options to defend ourselves against rogue governments and selling that via “migrant panic” bullshit.

Well if both sides aren’t playing clean, you sometimes also have to play dirty. It seems like the Government are of the strong belief the last few weeks of anti semitic attacks have been due to Irans influence manipulating people in the UK and are just trying to get solid evidence. If this proves to be true, it is likely the Uk government will have to act in ways you probably won’t like to protect our safety.

A perfect summary.

I'm more worried that one in four Green voters thinks that Palestine is a more important issue than the UK economy.

Ditto

What's your source of that?

Not saying it's not true but I can't find on google.

I agree op

No, I don't think they're a threat to democracy.
Democracy is the vehicle by which they would gain power.

I don't particularly think that they're "threatening" anyone either.
If Green and Lib Dems support open borders and welcome asylum seekers - then theoretically there should be no issue with accommodating them so the threat has no teeth.

Unless its welcome but NIMBY, which others have raised.

An actual threat to democracy would be a party that didnt issue any actual polices before an election and made it up as the went along, or who published policies and then never did any of it or one that tried to cancel elections entirely.

100% agree

It’s not lost on me that the Greens are predominantly childless,

This is not to say in ANY way that all childless people are ‘Green’ types, but the Greens themselves never do seem to have children and can therefore afford to treat the country as a big social experiment as ultimately their descendants will not pay any price.

What I can find is this in a May 2026 poll by Policy Exchange 25% of Muslim voters prioritised the Gaza conflict over the UK economy. There seems to be a policy alignment with the Greens and there’s growing evidence the Muslim voters is moving to the Greens Party eg https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/10/muslim-voters-turning-from-labour-to-greens-newcastle-local-elections

So maybe that’s what the poster meant

I read it in The Times this morning, so you should be able to verify it.

But they want the immigrants.

You have obviously not got a young daughter in a school next door to migrant accommodation then!

Apparently a few girls will just have to unfortunately accept getting SHed, SAed and maybe even murdered

But according to the Green Party these people don’t pose a risk so surely if they believe that there’s only a perceived threat it isn’t a real threat to their daughters (I don’t believe they are right on this front btw)

I think the Green Party, like most people, are against Detention centres completely.
They don't want Detention centres, not just in their community, but anywhere.
The threat is not to the people in the community but the conditions that people would be held in detention centres.

Reform are not talking about housing people in the community.

Imagine if some posters could see beyond this specific policy being centred on immigration, and that rewarding people for loyalty to the party should be setting off alarm bells. I guess Reform know their support base very well and maybe I was too optimistic.

Reassuringly, the wider public across political parties have recognised it for what it is and reported it, so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes. I’ll also look forward to the outcome of the parliamentary watchdog’s investigation into Farage’s £5million donation - an excellent delve into this by Victoria Derbyshire yesterday, if anyone missed it. And if any Reform supporters want to have a breather from ranting about asylum seekers, I’d be really interested to know why not a single Reform MP was present for a parliamentary debate on Russian interference in British politics. And did we ever discover who actually bought Farage’s house in Clacton? Nothing to see here, folks.