Zia Yusuf has demanded the removal of more than 1.2 million individuals residing illegally in Britain, alongside approximately 10,000 foreign nationals currently serving prison sentences.

Speaking to GB News, Reform UK's head of the Department of Government Efficiency declared Labour's move to deport foreign criminals is an attempt to "win a news cycle".

Mahmood has vowed to "send foreign criminals packing" in her latest pledge to deport criminals "immediately" after sentencing in the UK.

Zia Yusuf called for the deportation of foreign criminals to also include illegal migrants

Mahmood said of the plans: "This Government is taking radical action to deport foreign criminals, as part of our Plan for Change. Deportations are up under this Government, and with this new law, they will happen earlier than ever before.

"Our message is clear: if you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing."

Speaking to GB News, Yusuf stated: "We need to deport not just the foreign criminals in this country, we need to deport the 1.2 million plus illegal migrants who are also criminals. Ultimately, the clue is in the name, in the terminology, illegal migrant."

He continued: "There are north of 1.2 million illegal migrants in this country, and there's more than 10,000 foreign nationals languishing in our jails, and all we're seeing from Labour at the moment is an attempt to win a news cycle and to get in front of British voters."

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to 'send foreign criminals packing' | PA

Yusuf dismissed Labour's recently announced policy of removing individuals before they can lodge appeals as nothing more than political theatre.

"This concept of deport now, appeal later, the proof that it's just purely for the visuals is the fact that they've gone after something that looks like a DFS slogan," he said.

The Reform UK official argued that existing legislation already permits swift removals, suggesting the Government's announcement represents no meaningful change.

He explained: "And here's the kicker on all of this, this has been law for years. The reality is, all that's going to happen is you're going to mark my words, you're going to see injunctions from the legal industrial complex that are going to stop those deportations from happening because of the ECHR.

"The ECHR prevents these deportations from happening, so forget about the appeal, most of the preventions and the frustrations of deportations occur as a result of injunctions from these lawyers. And that's going to continue to happen. So all this is is an attempt to win a news cycle, we're not going to see any change."

Yusuf told GB News that Britain will 'not see any change' despite Labour's pledges

Yusuf insisted that Britain must withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to achieve his proposed deportation targets.

He concluded: "The only way to solve this problem is, frankly, not just leave the ECHR, but disapply all of the other aspects of international treaties that prevent these deportations from happening.

"And I want to stress here, we've narrowed the scope of the deportation conversation to around the 10,000 or so foreign criminals inside our jails.

"We should be talking about the 1.2 million people plus who are already here. Those people need to be deported as well."