Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf's latest scheme unveiled after botched relaunch

Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf's latest scheme unveiled after botched relaunch After enduring a disastrous week where their plans fell spectacularly flat, Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf were back for more - this time accompanied by a not-so-detailed 16 page document Nigel Farage is having a torrid time at the moment. He and his party face multiple sleaze allegations and he's going through the indignity of battling with a bin in a badly-thought-through by-election. But like an injured hippo with a hungry lion bearing down on it, this is when he could be at his most dangerous. Last week's attempt to recapture the old magic - and turn around a slump in the polls - fell pretty flat. First he attempted to sell a headline-grabbing plan to use the Royal Navy in the Channel to stop small boats. That was swiftly shot down by the French government, who branded it a violation of its sovereignty that would not be tolerated. A few days later, home affairs chief Zia Yusuf had another go, this time announcing plans to jail bosses who employ staff with no right to work in the UK. But that went awry too, with the Reform frontbencher branded a "pillock" because Labour has already passed legislation to do exactly what he proposed. So aiming for a third time lucky, the double act of Farage and Yusuf returned to a London hotel to unveil their latest caper. The duo have spent the last few days drawing up plans to dispatch foreign prisoners to countries like El Salvador or Kosovo that are happy to house them. Donald Trump has done something similar in the US. A document with the details - such as they are - clocked in at a whopping 16 pages. And that's if you count the title page, contents and end notes. But at least the ink was dry as they got handed out to journalists after Mr Farage got started. So, not the most detailed plan, it's fair to say. But that's not the point - as long as people are talking about small boats and prisons, they're not talking about the £5million 'gift' Mr Farage accepted but did not declare, or a police investigation around Reform donations. Which suits Mr Farage just fine. He and Mr Yusuf claimed that once they have served their sentences, criminals sent overseas will not be allowed back into the UK. But how they're going to achieve that if countries don't want to take back dangerous people if they don't have to. Pressed on this point by Channel 4 News, the home affairs chief said: "So the direct answer to your question comes down to negotiations with those foreign governments." Excellent, cheers for clearing that up. Later this year, we learned, former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson will be part of a delegation that goes over to El Salvador to start sounding out a prisoner deal. Despite the early stage that any talks are at, Reform's document confidently says it costs half as much to house a foreign criminal there than it does in the UK. Naturally there was no opportunity for The Mirror to question Mr Farage on this, although for the second week his former advisor Raheem Kassam was invited to ask one, this time about how badly the Reform boss is treated by the media. Now Mr Farage is in trouble, it is understandable that he retreats to his safe space - immigration - where he knows he can get a message across. But in a telling moment, a reporter from Bloomberg asked when we might hear more on things like trade, foreign policy, defence. As any DJ will tell you, you can't play the same playlist every week. "Are there more gaps to be filled?" Mr Farage answered. "Yes, there are, but it's very much a work in progress, and we will be ready (if an early general election is called)." There was a time when Mr Farage would take a question from every reporter in the room. But those days are long gone, with the Reform leader abruptly calling the press conference to an end without calling The Mirror, The Guardian or The Times, among others. He will be pleased not to have been asked about the gift from Mr Harborne, or the by-election he faces on Thursday where his main rival will be Count Binface. If he gets through that - as expected - a Parliamentary standards probe into Mr Harborne's generosity toward the Reform leader is expected to reopen. That sets up the intriguing possibility of another by-election if he is found to have broken the rules. If times continue to be tricky, we can probably expect to hear a lot more rushed ideas on immigration and policing over the coming weeks.