UNIONS and charities condemned Reform’s “divisive and reckless” plans today to detain and mass-deport women and children.

Party leader Nigel Farage vowed to strip asylum-seekers of their human rights and spend £2 billion securing returns deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran should he become prime minister — leading to accusations he would be paying the likes of the Taliban to take in refugees.

His speech in London sparked outrage as he confirmed that “women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained” as he pledged to deport up to 600,000 asylum-seekers in the party’s first parliament if elected to government.

Yet PM Sir Keir Starmer refused to criticise Reform UK’s proposals to broker returns deals with countries with dire human rights records.

“We’re not going to take anything off the table in terms of striking returns agreements with countries around the world,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters.

But a spokeswoman for Momentum told the Star: “Farage’s Trump-like plan for ‘mass deportation’ is divisive and reckless.

“This is the far right’s playbook: scapegoat migrants and sow division in our communities.

“Labour must condemn this by upholding international law and defending the right to claim asylum.”

Launching his party’s plans alongside senior figure Zia Yusuf, Mr Farage said that everyone who arrives on a small boat would be detained, including women and unaccompanied children.

Reform UK claims the plan will cost £10bn to implement during the first five years, but save £7bn currently spent on illegal migration.

Mr Yusuf said that would include £4bn for the construction and operation of detention facilities, £1.5bn for flying people back to their home countries and £2bn for the Foreign Office to reach returns deals with countries.

The party would leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights which would apply only to British citizens and those who have a legal right to live in Britain.

They would also bring forward legislation to make everyone who arrives illegally ineligible for asylum and allow asylum-seekers to be detained until deportation.

Reform would also revoke the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture, and the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention, said Mr Yusuf.

Mr Farage “is only interested in protecting the rights of the rich to accumulate more wealth,” said Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith. “For Farage, people seeking sanctuary are scapegoats to be used to avoid the working class properly analysing the failure of consecutive governments to invest in communities and improve living standards. He offers no solutions, just more blame.

“The majority of people don’t want to scrap protections against torture, modern slavery and persecution.

“They don’t want to see women and children placed in detention centres, denied their rights to safety. 

“We don’t need to turn our back on people fleeing war and persecution to make our country fairer, we need to turn our back on the hate pushed by Farage and the far right.”

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents Border Force officers, said: “Reform offers nothing to working-class people. No solutions to insecure work, rip-off landlords or NHS waiting lists. They offer only scapegoats and division.

“The answer to the small boats crisis — a crisis of people risking their lives seeking sanctuary — is to open safe and legal routes, as the UK did for Ukrainians.”

Downing Street ruled out leaving the ECHR, with Sir Keir’s spokesman saying: “The ECHR underpins key international agreements, trade, security and migration and the Good Friday Agreement.

“Anyone who is proposing to renegotiate the Good Friday Agreement is not serious.”

Freedom from Torture’s Kolbassia Haoussou added: “This is not who we are as a country. People know that turning a blind eye is just not an option. 

“Men, women and children are coming to the UK looking for safety. They are fleeing the unimaginable horrors of torture in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran. And they desperately need our protection.”