Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory minister turned Reform UK spokesperson, has said the party would house illegal immigrants in “secure reception centres” instead of hotels so they would know they would be “sent back” quickly.

Reform’s conference kicked off on Friday with a range of speakers, including Ms Widdecombe and TV personality Ant Middleton.

Ms Widdecombe, the party’s immigration spokeswoman, told the audience in Birmingham people who arrive “unlawfully” in the UK on small boats would be housed “in secure reception centres” if Reform was in government.

“We are not going to house the people who come in on those boats in hotels, at the cost of billions a day to the British taxpayer,” Ms Widdecombe said.

“We will instead house them in secure reception centres.

“And then the message goes out if you arrive unlawfully in this country from a perfectly safe country then you will be refused, you will be dealt with quickly and you will be sent back.”

A long-time Eurosceptic, Ms Widdecombe was prisons minister under Conservative prime minister John Major before stepping down as an MP in 2010 and appearing on several TV programmes, including Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.

She re-entered politics in 2019 as an MEP for the Brexit Party for a year before it became Reform UK.

Also speaking at Reform’s conference was Ant Middleton, known for Channel 4 show SAS: Who Dares Wins, who said the UK is on the brink of “civil unrest” unless action is taken to strengthen British culture and identity

He said “we haven’t got a secure camp”, adding that British identity is British culture, and British culture is British history.

“So why is that being eradicated? Why is that being trampled all over? Why aren’t we allowed to be the umbrella culture of this country?” Mr Middleton said.

Mr Middleton, highlighting the role of Christianity in the UK’s history, said the moment “we lose our identity” we lose “our purpose, our focus, our direction”.

“What happens when we don’t have an identity? We get confused,” he added.

And he said when people are confused they get frustrated, which turns to “anger, violence”.

He continued: “We are at a very, very important and crucial stage before it teeters into civil unrest, which we want to avoid at all costs, but it’s coming. We’re on that edge where violence has hit the streets, we’ve all seen it.”

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Ms Widdecombe also spoke about overcrowded prisons and said when she was prisons minister in the 1990s she suggested taking over a “disused holiday camp”.

She said it would just need a secure perimeter and “lo, you’ve got a low-security prison”.

“Of course, you do take away the cinema and the swimming pool before you do that,” she added.