A Reform UK government would cut the maximum paid to illegal asylum seekers to leave Britain voluntarily, the party has said.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, announced on Tuesday that migrants whose asylum applications have failed would be paid a maximum of £1,000 if they returned to their country of origin.

The figure is less than the £2,500 previously outlined by Reform and below the current maximum of £3,000 on offer from the Government under its voluntary returns scheme.

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, recently launched a pilot scheme to pay failed asylum seekers up to £10,000 per person, or £40,000 per family, if they agreed to return to their home country within seven days of an application failing.

About 150 families are expected to take part in the trial, which is designed to cut the Government’s cost of housing failed asylum seekers and families with no right to remain.

It costs an average £158,000 to house a family of three for a year or £53,000 for an individual. The Home Office estimates the new scheme could save £20m annually in housing costs if successful.

Speaking at a press conference in Warwickshire on Tuesday, Mr Farage said Reform’s proposal for failed applicants would be significantly lower.

He said: “It would be maximum £1,000, not the £40,000 per family that Shabana Mahmood is seeking to offer. You have to find a way of making this work, and I think that would work.

“What we said was, there are people living illegally in Britain. We will make it easy for them to go back to their country of return, and that would mean you pay for their transport and a small sum of money for when they arrive. And if that’s [the] fastest way of doing it, then you do it.”

He pointed to the US as an example, adding: “You look at America, where deportation policies are very controversial, but three-quarters of the illegals that have left America under this administration have gone [back to the countries from which they came].

“Someone knocks at their door. Listen, mate, we know you shouldn’t be here. You know you shouldn’t be here. We’ll pay your flight and give you one thousand dollars. And by the way, if you want to reapply for a skills visa, we won’t discriminate against you, and that has worked.

“And so you’re looking at nearly one and a half million people who entered America illegally have left in the last 18 months, all of which goes to prove it actually can be done.”

Labour claimed Reform was “all over the place” on its policy and floating “different sums of money”. In August, Reform had suggested paying £2,500 for migrants to return home voluntarily.

A Labour spokesman said: “While Reform tie themselves in knots chasing headlines, this Labour Government is getting on with the job of restoring control of our borders and removing those with no right to be here.”

Responding to the Government’s £40,000 pilot scheme, Mr Farage said: “When I was told this, I thought it must be a joke. If I came to Britain illegally and I was able to get even £10,000 to go away, you know what I would do? I would come back again. I play the round robin. This is an absolute farce.”

Mr Farage was joined at the press conference by Siobhan Whyte, the mother of Rhiannon Whyte, who was murdered by an illegal migrant from Sudan in 2024.

She told reporters: “He took Rihanna’s life in 90 seconds, stabbed her through the main brainstem. He has never shown any remorse. He called forensics liars. He just didn’t care. He wouldn’t tell us why. He just denied everything.

“So we’ve had to live with that, while her little boy’s been left without a mum. My children have been left without a sister, and I’ve lost my daughter through these scumbags that were allowed into this country illegally.

“Something needs to be done, they need to stop allowing the men. When’s the next murder, and a family having to go through what we’re going through?”