“I get this in the street from people, people point at me and say, ‘You are the last chance we’ve got to get this country back on track’. We are the last chance the country has got to get this country back on track.”

Mr Farage said he was going to have lunch with the Albanian premier to talk about deporting foreign criminals after announcing a Reform UK government would stop the boats within two weeks. He added “We will deport foreign criminals.

“We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country, doing what nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does.

Zia Yusuf will be Reform UK’s new head of policy and the party will set up a department for preparing for government, Mr Farage has announced.

He said: “In order to get all these policies brought together under one roof – and it’s a massive workload – I’m going to ask Zia Yusuf, from this day, to be our head of policy to bring all of this together.

“I will, in the next few weeks, open up a new department within the party, leaning on the experience that Nadine (Dorries) and others have – and others will come.

“Others with experience will come. Don’t worry about that, and we will open a department for preparing for government so that when we win, we can hit the ground running.”

Mr Farage warned of a “big rift” in Labour and told Reform UK’s national party conference that he thinks a general election could take place in 2027.

His comments followed Angela Rayner’s resignation from government over failing to pay £40,000 in tax on her second home in Hove.

The scandal over the former housing secretary underpaying £40,000 of stamp duty “screams to entitlement”, Mr Farage said.

Brexit’s architect declared that the Government was “deep in crisis” as Sir Keir scrambled to reshuffle his top team.

The Reform UK leader also laid into the “cabinet of people wholly unqualified to run our country”.

Meanwhile Reform UK may need to rethink its pledge to deliver £90bn of tax cuts, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice suggested.

The Reform UK manifesto published ahead of last year’s general election made commitments to slash income tax in particular, as well as large spending pledges on defence.

But Mr Tice told the BBC: “A manifesto in July 2024 is not appropriate for a manifesto or contract whenever the next general election is.”

Nigel Farage Makes Bombshell Pledge to Stop Small Boats in 2 Weeks if He Becomes PM

Nigel Farage has made one of his most striking immigration pledges yet, promising that a Reform UK government would stop small boats crossing the English Channel within two weeks of taking office. The declaration placed the issue of illegal migration firmly at the centre of his political message and once again challenged the established parties to explain how they would deal with the continuing Channel crossings.

Speaking at a Reform UK conference in Birmingham, Farage said stopping the boats would be one of the party’s core priorities if it entered government. He argued that Britain needed a fundamentally different approach to border control and insisted that people arriving illegally should not automatically be allowed to remain in the country.

The pledge immediately attracted considerable attention because of its unusually short timetable. Successive British governments have attempted to reduce small-boat crossings, but the issue has proved extremely difficult to resolve. The Channel is a busy international waterway, people-smuggling networks operate across borders, and any attempt to return people intercepted at sea raises complicated legal and diplomatic questions.

Farage nevertheless presented his proposal as evidence that Reform UK would take a more direct approach than previous governments.

He argued that the British public had heard promises about controlling the Channel for years without seeing the problem disappear. In his view, a government that cannot prevent unauthorised crossings risks undermining confidence in the wider immigration system.

Immigration has been central to Farage’s political career for decades. His campaign against Britain’s membership of the European Union was closely connected to arguments about national sovereignty and border control, while Reform UK has subsequently made immigration one of its defining political issues.

The small-boats crisis has given that argument a particularly visible focus.

Since 2018, tens of thousands of people have crossed the Channel in small boats after departing from northern France. Many of those arriving have claimed asylum in Britain. The journeys can be extremely dangerous because people are frequently transported in overcrowded and unsuitable vessels.

The British government has therefore faced pressure not only to control immigration but also to prevent deaths at sea.

Farage has argued that stopping the crossings would require a fundamental change in policy rather than simply increasing enforcement after people arrive.

At the Reform conference, he said his party would stop the boats and detain and deport people who entered the country illegally. He described the issue as one of national security and argued that Britain should operate a system in which illegal entry does not automatically lead to permanent residence.

However, the two-week pledge quickly generated questions about exactly how it would work.

The following day, Farage was pressed about the timetable and clarified that the two-week period would apply once the necessary laws were in place. He said Reform would stop the crossings within two weeks of having the legal ability to detain and deport people more quickly.

That clarification is significant.

Passing new immigration legislation through Parliament can take considerably longer than two weeks. If a Reform government required new legislation before implementing its proposed system, the practical timetable for the overall policy would therefore be longer than the original headline suggested.

Farage’s revised explanation also demonstrates the difficulty involved in turning a political pledge into an operational policy.

A government would have to determine what legal powers were required, how those powers would interact with existing immigration and human-rights law, what arrangements would be made with France and other countries, and how people intercepted in the Channel would be processed.

These questions are particularly important because the English Channel is not solely a British-controlled environment.

Small boats generally begin their journeys from the French coast before entering French and then international or British waters. Cooperation with French authorities has therefore remained an important part of Britain’s strategy.

The UK has previously reached agreements with France aimed at increasing efforts to prevent crossings and return certain people. However, the continuing number of arrivals demonstrates the difficulty of stopping the people-smuggling trade completely.

Reform has proposed going further.

Farage and senior Reform figures have discussed using the Royal Navy and other military resources to intercept small boats. In August 2026, Farage said he was “entirely confident” that a Reform government could stop the crossings within 14 days, while the party’s proposals included military intervention in the Channel.

The proposal has prompted questions about maritime law and Britain’s relationship with France.

French officials have objected to proposals involving the forced return of boats, arguing that such actions could raise issues involving French sovereignty and maritime law.

This illustrates one of the central challenges facing any government attempting to implement a rapid policy.

Political leaders can announce a policy immediately, but putting it into practice may require negotiations with another sovereign state.

There is also the question of what happens to people after they are intercepted.

If people are returned to France, there must be an agreement under which French authorities accept them. If France refuses to accept certain individuals, Britain would need another legal mechanism. If a person claims asylum or says that returning them would expose them to persecution or serious harm, additional legal procedures may be required.

These considerations explain why immigration policy is rarely as simple in practice as it appears in political speeches.

Nevertheless, Farage believes the existing approach has failed to provide sufficient deterrence.

His argument is that people-smuggling gangs are able to operate because potential migrants believe that reaching British territory will give them access to an asylum process and potentially the right to remain while their case is considered.

Reform therefore wants to change the incentives surrounding the journey.

The party has proposed significantly tougher measures for people who enter Britain illegally, including large-scale detention and deportation programmes. Farage has also linked the small-boats issue to a wider plan to remove people who have no legal right to remain in Britain.

The issue became even more prominent during Farage’s political campaign as Reform attempted to distinguish itself from both Labour and the Conservatives.

The Conservative Party had previously made stopping the boats a major political objective. Rishi Sunak famously pledged to “stop the boats” during his premiership, while his government introduced legislation and pursued the Rwanda policy as part of its strategy.

Despite those efforts, small-boat crossings continued.

That experience has provided Reform with an argument against the established parties. Farage can point to years of political promises and argue that a fundamentally different strategy is necessary.

Labour has faced a similar challenge since taking office.

The Labour government has sought to dismantle the Rwanda scheme and concentrate on tackling people-smuggling gangs, increasing cooperation with European countries and speeding up asylum processing and returns.

The government has argued that the problem requires practical enforcement rather than headline-grabbing announcements.

Reform’s response is that existing measures have not gone far enough.

This disagreement has made immigration one of the clearest dividing lines in British politics.

For Farage, the small boats issue is not only about immigration numbers. It is also about the credibility of government.

If ministers repeatedly promise to control the border but crossings continue, voters may conclude that the government either lacks the necessary powers or lacks the political will to use them.

Farage has built much of his political identity around precisely this criticism.

His supporters see the two-week pledge as an example of the urgency they believe has been missing from Westminster. Critics, however, have questioned whether such a rapid timetable is realistic given the legal, diplomatic and operational obstacles involved.

The distinction between an ambition and a guarantee is therefore important.

Farage has made the two-week timeframe a political commitment, but stopping all crossings completely would depend on circumstances beyond the direct control of a British prime minister.

People-smuggling networks could change their methods. Boats could depart from different locations. French authorities might respond differently to British proposals. Courts could challenge aspects of new legislation. International agreements could take time to negotiate.

These factors would make implementation considerably more complicated than the headline suggests.

There is also a humanitarian dimension.

Many people crossing the Channel are asylum seekers who say they are fleeing war, persecution or severe instability. Others may have travelled through multiple countries before reaching France.

The British government therefore has to distinguish between illegal entry and the underlying protection claims made by individuals.

Under existing international and domestic legal frameworks, people seeking asylum have rights that cannot simply be ignored because they arrived by small boat.

Reform has proposed changing some of those legal arrangements.

The party has advocated significant changes to Britain’s relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights and has proposed replacing or reforming parts of the existing human-rights framework. Such proposals would represent a major change in British immigration policy and would generate substantial parliamentary and legal debate.

The debate over the two-week pledge consequently goes beyond whether boats can physically be intercepted.

It concerns the legal framework within which immigration enforcement operates.

It also raises questions about Britain’s relationship with France and other European countries.

No British government can completely isolate the Channel from international cooperation. Smuggling networks are transnational, and effective enforcement requires intelligence sharing, policing cooperation and agreements concerning returns.

Farage’s supporters argue that Britain should be prepared to take stronger unilateral action if cooperation does not deliver results.

Opponents argue that unilateral action could damage Britain’s relationship with France and create additional legal difficulties.

The political significance of the pledge is nevertheless clear.

Farage has identified an issue that is highly visible and emotionally powerful. Images of inflatable boats crossing the Channel have become one of the defining symbols of Britain’s immigration debate.

By promising to stop the crossings within two weeks, he has established a very clear benchmark against which Reform’s immigration policy could be judged.

The pledge also creates pressure on Labour and the Conservatives.

If they cannot offer an equally clear explanation of how they would reduce crossings, Reform can continue to argue that it is the only party prepared to set an aggressive target.

At the same time, if existing government measures reduce crossings significantly, the political environment could change.

This is why the actual figures over time will matter.

A reduction in arrivals would provide evidence that enforcement policies were having an effect, although it would not necessarily establish which individual policy caused the change. Conversely, continued high numbers would provide ammunition for critics of the government’s approach.

The debate is therefore likely to remain intense.

For Farage, the small boats issue also connects to his wider argument about national sovereignty.

He has repeatedly argued that Britain should determine who can enter the country and under what circumstances. Brexit was, in his political narrative, partly about restoring that control.

Reform’s immigration proposals extend the same argument into border enforcement.

The party wants Britain to have greater freedom to decide how asylum applications are processed, how people without legal status are removed and what international agreements govern those processes.

Critics respond that sovereignty does not eliminate international obligations.

Britain remains bound by treaties and legal commitments, and any government seeking to change those arrangements would have to go through significant political and legal processes.

The two-week pledge therefore sits at the intersection of several major political debates: immigration, national sovereignty, human rights, international cooperation and the authority of the British government.

It is also a test of Farage’s political style.

His approach has traditionally been to make clear and highly memorable promises on issues that he believes voters understand instinctively. The small-boats pledge follows that pattern.

The phrase “stop the boats in two weeks” is simple and easily communicated.

The policy required to achieve it is considerably more complicated.

That contrast will likely remain at the centre of arguments between Reform and its opponents.

For voters, the important questions concern the practical details behind the promise.

What legal changes would be required?

How would the Royal Navy or other agencies operate?

Would France accept people returned from British-controlled waters?

What would happen to asylum claims?

How much would the policy cost?

How would the government respond to court challenges?

And what would happen if people-smuggling organisations changed their tactics?

The answers to those questions would determine how the pledge operated in reality.

Farage’s announcement has nevertheless ensured that small boats will remain one of the most prominent subjects in Britain’s political debate.

The Reform leader has made stopping the crossings a central test of what he believes government should be able to accomplish. His original statement promised action within two weeks of entering government, while his subsequent clarification linked that timetable to the introduction of the necessary legal powers.

That distinction is crucial when assessing the proposal.

The pledge is politically dramatic, but its implementation would depend on legislation, enforcement capacity, international cooperation and legal constraints.

What happens to the Channel crossings will ultimately be measured not by the language of a conference speech but by the number of boats departing, the number reaching Britain, the effectiveness of returns and the wider operation of the asylum system.

For now, Farage has placed himself firmly at the centre of that debate.

His promise to stop the boats within two weeks has become one of the clearest examples of Reform UK’s determination to pursue a much tougher immigration policy. Whether the proposed approach could deliver the promised timetable remains a matter of political, legal and operational debate.

What is certain is that the small-boats crisis will continue to be a major issue for Britain’s political parties, and Farage’s pledge has ensured that the argument over how Britain should control its borders will remain one of the most closely watched political battles in the country.

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