Reform UK has published the terms of reference for its National Security Review, led by Angus MacIntyre, the party’s newly minted Armed Forces spokesman. The document states that “the objective of the United Kingdom is to be a principal power” in the region, and that it aspires to be “stronger in all these respects than every other European country.” Among its urgent defence needs it lists “missile and undersea defence, with sovereign targeting rather than reliance on the US.”
The 14-page document is a set of terms, rather a finished review. MacIntyre writes that they “will inform the consultation process that I am beginning today.” Nigel Farage unveiled him this month as the party’s defence spokesman, after MacIntrye left the armed forces after 40 years of distinguished service in multiple theatres.
“Our policy should be ‘NATO First’, not ‘NATO Only’,” it says. Britain “must not promise the supply of forces that would, under the NATO Force Model, pass to the command of the alliance and no longer be available for national tasks.” “It is essential to maintain a sovereign reserve, ready for any defence task including support for the civil authorities in an emergency. Britain must always be able to defend itself.”
“The United States remains the UK’s greatest ally,” the document explains. It describes “America’s strategy, set out in the 2025 National Security Strategy, to dominate the Western Hemisphere” as “good for Britain’s security,” but adds that “the US’s principal focus is, understandably, on the Americas, the Arabian Gulf and the Indo-Pacific region, not Europe. That requires the UK and European countries to increase their defence spending urgently.” It also says Britain should support the United States by “resisting Chinese subversion (and the threat of China’s client state, Russia) in the Euro-Atlantic.”
The document says Russia is “the greatest immediate state threat to the security of the United Kingdom” and is “already waging hybrid warfare against us.” It sets spending of 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 and 3.5 per cent by 2035 as “a floor, not a ceiling.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham has refused to commit to the 2030 target.
A further principle is to “ensure internal cohesion and allegiance to the Crown.” “Cohesion means that the whole country is in agreement on the fundamentals of life in Britain, and acknowledges its loyalty to the Crown,” the document says. “We expect everyone living here to support Parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, and the freedom of the individual.”
“The threat from Islamist terrorism and extremism remains dangerously high,” it says. “Recent waves of migration and our porous borders have only made this problem worse.” Reform “will also ban the Muslim Brotherhood and ensure that programmes like Prevent are focused on the real threats Britain faces, especially Islamist terrorism, and mandate home searches in cases of repeat referrals.”
“Immigrants and their descendants often have a strong loyalty to Britain and a positive respect for family and community,” the document says. “But versions of Islam and diaspora groups that are hostile to Britain, restrict the rights of women, and deny the right of anyone to live their own lives with freedom of conscience and association, are a threat to the United Kingdom and will not be accepted.”
Iran, it says, “remains the largest state-sponsor of terrorism around the world, including in the UK.” The document, which cites no source for the claim, says Tehran “threatens our energy security, sends agents to our country via small boats, and continues to fund extremist Imams to radicalise our population and threaten British Jews.”
The first of its eight principles is: “We must protect our borders before we do anything else.” It calls the situation in the Channel “a national security emergency” and says a state that cannot stop “an invasion of over 200,000 unvetted, fighting-age men crossing the English Channel illegally and in plain sight over the last eight years” has “failed in its most essential responsibility.” That description is Reform’s, not an official total of small-boat arrivals.
It restates plans, under Operation Fortress and Operation Restoring Justice, to “stop the boats within the First 100 Days,” with the Royal Navy intercepting “every vessel carrying illegal migrants” and returning everyone on board to “their country of departure,” and describes Operation Restoring Justice as “a five-year emergency programme intended to identify, detain and deport all illegal migrants in the United Kingdom.” It also restates that, upon entering government, Reform would “suspend the asylum system and grants of humanitarian protection entirely for a full parliamentary term.”
It says a Reform government “will always maintain full British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar” and “will reverse The Conservatives’ and Labour’s Chagos deal and restore full British sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, including Diego Garcia.” “We do not owe our former colonies any reparations for slavery,” it says. The Chagos treaty was signed in May 2025 but has not been implemented.
It restates that Britain “will leave the European Convention on Human Rights, and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court, and derogate from other relevant treaties such as the Refugee Convention.” It restates a £1 billion cap on foreign aid. “We must carefully examine whether international development can grow our trade, strengthen military alliances and help deliver UK priorities such as deportation of all foreign national offenders and illegal migrants,” it says. “If not, we should not ask taxpayers to pay for it.” That is a principle to “carefully examine,” not a rule applied to every pound.
