Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's home affairs spokesman, insisted Paris would have to take in migrants if the Royal Navy picked them up in the sea and dropped them off in northern France. He described the party's proposal, which will be unveiled in full later on Monday, as "the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two" and a "humanitarian mission".
Yusuf said the plan was in part inspired by what he saw in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, where around 60,000 migrants breached the border with Morocco last week. He said the military in Ceuta "were carrying basically weapons of war on them".
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "I saw soldiers using pepper spray into interacting directly with migrants that were acting in a disorderly fashion. And in using the military, what I saw was Spain was able to remove, effectively send back, what looked like north of 40,000 illegal migrants in the space of a day."
Doubts over naval capacity
Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe cast doubt on whether the proposal was workable. "When you start looking at what ships we have, which is basically none – I mean, he's talking about the largest maritime operation in the Channel since World War Two, a very evocative image, but that's not the reality," he told the Today programme. "We don't have the ships."
Sharpe added that using warships might waste resources if their anti-air and anti-submarine capabilities were better suited to other scenarios. He noted the country already has the Border Force set up to intercept migrants trying to reach Great Britain.
He warned Paris could refuse to accept migrants ferried to French shores by the Royal Navy. Noting that French authorities already grant asylum to migrants, he added: "It needs their total approval which which I don't think we'll get. And frankly, you know, brutally, why why would we?"
Reform's Channel plan
Yusuf said Reform had considered a scenario in which French authorities refused to consent, saying London and Paris would need to have "something of an argument". He argued that because migrants have died crossing the Channel, the boats would be "full of innocent civilians who are being rescued as part of a humanitarian mission", and that refusing to let them disembark would be a "crime against humanity".
Yusuf said that if elected, Reform would use Bay Class landing ships, which are used to transport troops and vehicles, to execute the plan. Smaller offshore River patrol vessels "will have Royal Marines on board that will be used to go right up alongside these illegal migrant dinghies, take them on board and escort them back to France", he said.
On Sunday he said: "Britain is being invaded. Tory and Labour governments responded with a free ferry service and free hotels. Reform UK will respond by launching the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two."
Political response
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will outline the plans at a press conference on Monday, where he is likely to also face questions about a £5 million gift he received from crypto-billionaire and party donor Christopher Harborne before he became an MP. A parliamentary investigation into the gift has been paused since Farage stood down as Clacton MP and triggered a by-election, in which he is standing; it would resume if he is re-elected. Reform deputy leader Richard Tice is also facing a probe opened by Parliament's standards commissioner last Tuesday over an alleged "failure to declare interest".
Home Office figures show more than 2,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister last month. The numbers show 326 migrants arrived on Saturday in four boats, bringing the total to 2,057 since Sir Keir Starmer left office on July 20.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said the Government's effort to curb migration "is working", citing "a doubling of enforcement officers to make sure that people aren't getting on those boats to begin with" and "an increase in arrests of about 74%".
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Mr Burnham "does not seem to have the the strength to adopt a plan" to tackle migration. "All that is protecting our country's borders is rough seas in the English Channel and as soon as we get any calm weather we have huge numbers," he told BBC Breakfast. Philp later told the Press Association that Reform UK had put forward "slogans and policies written on the back of a fag packet but no credibility behind it – they can't answer basic questions like how they would properly fund the military".
"They haven't even got a defence spokesman and they can't answer basic questions like what they would do if the French refuse to allow the illegal immigrants to be disembarked back in France," he continued. The Conservatives, he said, "would deport these illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, and if that's not possible, a safe third country like Rwanda".
