The Reform UK leader isn’t backing down over tough plan to deal with cross-Channel migrants
Nigel Farage spoke to the Express (Image: Getty)
France will “have to lump” controversial plans to transport small boat migrants back across the Channel in Royal Navy vessels, Nigel Farage has warned. The French government has condemned the idea as “a violation of French sovereignty”. But Mr Farage said: “This policy initially, the French may not like, but you know what, they’re going to have to lump it.”
Speaking to the Express, he pointed out that the UK was giving France more than £1.1 billion between 2023 and 2029 to help them secure their borders, “We’re giving them a huge amount of money, and yet their navy still escorts boats from 200 yards off the shore, all the way to our 12 mile line and says, ‘there you go lads’. That is not acceptable at any level.”
Mr Farage added: “Secondly, life is hell for anyone living in Dunkirk, Calais, Ardaloe, Wimeroe, all along that coast. You know, thousands of young men camped out. If the boats stopped coming, the lives of people in northern France would be considerably better.”
He said Reform’s policy would save lives, by ending dangerous cross-Channel crossings, as well as money.
“So there may be opposition from Monsieur Macron towards doing it, but once you do it a few times it will become established and the camps will go away, and the crime in northern France will go away.”
Reform last week announced plans for what it calls Operation Fortress, a military operation to secure Britain’s borders and stop illegal Channel crossings.
Under a Reform UK Government, the Armed Forces would be deployed to intercept unauthorised vessels crossing the English Channel, transfer the illegal migrants onto Royal Navy vessels (treating them medically if necessary), and escort those on board back to France or Belgium.
So far this year, more than 14,500 migrants have been detected attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats without permission to enter the UK.
Mr Farage has insisted he will not be driven out of politics, as he vowed to fight a “cancel culture” committed to destroying his party.
He said a “really, really nasty” campaign against him stepped up a gear following Reform UK’s local election victories in May, when it gained control of 14 councils.
Speaking to the Express in the run-up to Thursday’s by-election in his Clacton constituency, the Reform UK leader said the onslaught had gone beyond anything he expected when he returned to politics full-time in 2024.
“I didn’t expect to spend as much time as I now do with counter-terrorism. I didn’t expect to receive hundreds of death threats over the course of the last few months. I didn’t expect all of that.
“I mean, look, as I say, I know it’s a rough game. I’ve been around a hell of a long time. I mean, I am the sort of surviving veteran of all of this.
“But no, it’s been really, really nasty.”
Reform had become a target for left-wingers who objected to the party’s very existence, he said. But it was also seen as a threat to an establishment that had ruled the UK for a century.
“We’ve seen over the last decade or so, cancel culture. I’m afraid that deep intolerance from the modern left is now of a level where they literally want people of a sensible centre-right just not to exist, not to be able to say anything.
“And there’s something else going on here, too. We have had, basically since the end of the First World War, two parties dominate British politics.
“One runs it for 10 years, then it’s ‘your turn, old boy. You have a go’. What’s happened is we’ve come along as a massive challenger, led hundreds of opinion polls, and it almost feels like they don’t want us in the game.”
Mr Farage insisted voters in Clacton understood why he felt the need to resign as an MP, prompting the by-election in which he hoped to be re-elected. It followed media stories about his finances, and a Parliamentary investigation into a £5 million gift received before he became an MP.
He said: “It’s as if there’s been a pile-up from the entire establishment on a level I’ve never seen anything like it. And it’s like every day you wake up and you’re guilty of something.”
Mr Farage said he decided “I’ll ask the voters, because they see the news, they see the media. I’ll say to the voters of Clacton, ‘you decide, you be my judge’. Let the people decide. And most people I speak to get it.”
A record 34 candidates are standing in Clacton, believed to be the highest number ever in a Parliamentary seat. However, with the major rival parties refusing to take part, opposition to Mr Farage has coalesced around the comedy candidate known as Count Binface, the alter-ego of comedy writer Jonathan Harvey.
Mr Farage said Conservatives had insulted local voters by failing to stand a candidate in the constituency, where they won 72.3% of the vote in the 2019 general election. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said Tories will stand if a second by-election takes place – which could happen if the Parliamentary inquiry finds Mr Farage did break House of Commons rules.
National opinion polls showed Reform well ahead of any other party for a period of more than 12 months, but more recent surveys suggest backing for Labour has risen under Andy Burnham’s leadership.
However, Mr Farage remains confident that he can eventually become Prime Minister.
“Politics is a game of snakes and ladders. Anyone that tells you they can read the tea leaves and know exactly where we’re going to be in a year’s time, that’s not possible. But I still think that the strength of Reform support is across the board.
“And I think after the absolute battering we’ve had from every angle, you know, we’re still there.
“So yeah, I’m still very confident we can win the next election.”