Nigel Farage claims migrant criminals now begging him to deport them - 'desperate!'

Nigel Farage has revealed how foreign inmates have pleaded to be released from UK jails where they cost taxpayers thousands of pounds each year.

The Reform leader posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, which showed him reading two letters from inmates pleading to be sent home to free up space in crowded jails.

Mr Farage said: "I've received these extraordinary letters over the course of the last few weeks." He added: "Isn't it absolutely bizarre that people are writing to me. Foreign prisoners saying 'get rid of us. We don't want to stay here anymore but the government won't do it'."

One letter was sent to Reform UK's leader at the end of last month from a prisoner in York who said he was from Lithuania and "desperate" to be deported back.

Another came from an Indian national in HM Prison Ashfield serving 15 years and six months for grievous bodily harm with intent.

Mr Farage said: "Frankly, my view is these people should be deported immediately in one case here India, the other Lithuania."

He added: "For us to have got to this situation where we are releasing early all sorts of bad people who are going back into the communities and re-offending because our prisons are stuffed full of foreign nationals.

"It's a situation that is beyond belief. These people should be deported immediately."

Foreign criminals will be deported after serving as little as a tenth of their sentences to free up space in overcrowded jails.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood introduced legislation that will slash the time served in prison to just over two months for a foreign burglar jailed for two years.

They will not have to serve the rest of their sentence in their home country but will be barred from ever returning to the UK.

If they are caught breaching the order by sneaking back into Britain, they will be forced to serve the rest of their sentence.

The move is designed to combat overcrowding by reducing the record number of foreign criminals in jails in England and Wales, which stands at 10,838 as of the end of March.

That represents nearly one in eight (12 per cent) of the 88,000 prisoners in English and Welsh jails. Each is costing the taxpayer £54,000 a year, which amounts to a total of nearly £600 million.