Reform UK has been ridiculed after launching its small-boat crossings plan with a document featuring a Royal Navy warship sold to Brazil eight years ago. The party published "Operation Fortress" following a press conference in London where Nigel Farage and home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf promised the "biggest military operation in the English Channel since the Second World War".
HMS Ocean blunder on document cover
Under the plan, a Reform government would order the Royal Navy and Royal Marines to intercept every unauthorised vessel and return its occupants to France. The cover of the document, however, showed a 2012 photograph of HMS Ocean. The landing platform helicopter was sold by the UK to Brazil in 2018 for around £84million and now serves as the Brazilian Navy's flagship, NAM Atlântico.
Conservative MP and former British Army officer Ben Obese-Jecty highlighted the blunder. He posted: "Reform, always across the detail on defence matters, have used a 2012 picture of HMS Ocean on the cover of 'Operation Fortress'. HMS Ocean was sold to Brazil in 2018 and is now the Brazilian Navy flagship, NAM Atlântico. It remains unclear as to how the Brazilian Navy will be involved."
Criticism from military figures
Former RAF senior commander Greg Bagwell, president of the UK Air & Space Power Association, also attacked the publication. Leaving aside the use of HMS Ocean, he asked "if anyone will ever admit to writing the military elements of the most ridiculous operational planning document I have ever read".
In follow-up posts he described the command relationships as "breathtakingly confusing" and "a complete word salad", questioned whether the author had attended staff college or used ChatGPT, and criticised the creation of a new "Integrated Surveillance Command" that would require scarce P-8 anti-submarine aircraft to search for rubber dinghies.
Defence commentator and Express reporter Conor Wilson, a former British Army captain, added: "Nothing sums up Reform's approach to defence like a policy document featuring a ship sold to Brazil in 2018 on its front page. But I'm sure apart from that they are all over the detail..."
Operation Fortress details
Reform UK has presented "Operation Fortress" as a detailed plan endorsed by senior former members of the Armed Forces. The policy document sets out a joint military command and an integrated surveillance system intended to make the English Channel border "impenetrable". Farage said crossings would end "within a fortnight".
Under Operation Fortress, units from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and British Army would form a joint military command alongside a dedicated surveillance network. Armed forces would intercept unauthorised boats, providing occupants with food, water and medical checks before escorting them back on navy vessels to France or Belgium.
Reform insists the strategy is legally sound and fundamentally humanitarian, designed to save lives in the Channel. Emergency legislation would be passed if necessary to grant forces full operational powers. However, Labour dismissed the plan as a "reheated" announcement, stating that anger and easy answers would not bring down crossing numbers. The Express has contacted Reform UK for comment.
