Reform UK's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf has insisted France would have to take in migrants if the Royal Navy picked them up at sea and dropped them off in northern France. He described the party's proposal for "the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two" as a "humanitarian mission".
The plan was in part inspired by what he saw in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, where around 60,000 migrants last week breached the border with Morocco. Mr Yusuf, who has visited the territory, said the military there "were carrying basically weapons of war on them".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "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 the proposal
Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe cast doubt on whether the plan was workable, saying on the same programme: "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. We don't have the ships."
Mr 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, and warned Paris could end up refusing to accept migrants being ferried to French shores by the Royal Navy.
"It needs their total approval which which I don't think we'll get. And frankly, you know, brutally, why why would we?" he said.
Yusuf's response
Responding, Mr Yusuf said his party had considered a scenario where French authorities refused to consent to the plan, saying London and Paris would need to have "something of an argument".
He added that given migrants have died crossing the English Channel, the boats would be "full of innocent civilians who are being rescued as part of a humanitarian mission". It would be a "crime against humanity" not to let them disembark, he said.
"The idea that President (Emmanuel) Macron would order the gendarmerie, the coastguard, or anybody else under his control to commit a crime against humanity, which is what that would be, I do not think that that is a serious hypothetical," Mr Yusuf said.
Mr Yusuf said Reform UK, if elected into government, would use Bay Class landing ships, used to transport troops and vehicles, to execute its proposal. 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.
Political reaction and figures
On Sunday, Mr Yusuf 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."
Figures show more than 2,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister last month. Home Office 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.
Cabinet minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, defended the Government's effort to curb migration across the Channel on Monday. "We've seen a doubling of enforcement officers to make sure that people aren't getting on those boats to begin with, and if they are and they need to be returned, they're returned," she told Sky News.
"But secondly, it is about making sure that we are getting to grips with the criminal gangs that are at the heart of this – we've seen an increase in arrests of about 74%. And then the third plank is making sure that there are safe and legal routes. We think that approach is working – 50% down."
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," the Conservative frontbencher said.
