Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform UK party, announced on Monday his intention to use naval forces to prevent migrant boats from crossing the waters of the English Channel to reach British shores, if he wins power. Farage, leader of the right-wing anti-immigration party, said in a press conference, "What happened in Ceuta over the weekend shows how dangerous this situation is."

Published on: 03/08/2026 - 22:20

Against the backdrop of the recent repercussions of the immigration file, the leader of the far-right Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, said on Monday that his party will use the Royal Navy to repel migrant boats and keep them away from Britain once he comes to power.

"What happened in Ceuta over the weekend shows how serious this situation is," Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, said at a press conference.

These proposals, which were met with widespread condemnation from other political forces, come a few days after the influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco towards the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which brought the irregular migration crisis back to the forefront of European discussions.

Read also: Spain returns most of the migrants to Morocco, and an emergency European meeting is held to discuss the crisis on Tuesday

Farage unveiled a 28-page document that includes a plan to deploy the British Royal Navy to intercept small boats in the English Channel and return them to French territory.

This is the same proposal that was previously put forward by the Conservative government in 2020 before it quickly retreated from it.

Bringing this plan into effect requires the party to succeed in winning the next general elections, which are not scheduled to be held before 2029.

Although Farage and his party topped the opinion polls for about a year and a half, they have witnessed a decline in recent weeks following a series of scandals and official investigations related to their financial records.

In this regard, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner reported on Monday that an investigation had begun last week into allegations related to the “non-disclosure” of a financial interest belonging to the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice.

It is noteworthy that the London police had announced in February 2025 the opening of an investigation into donations made to the party ahead of the 2024 general elections, based on an official request from the election monitoring body.

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For his part, Farage denied that revealing this plan was merely an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigations, stressing: “We are fully confident that our policy based on safely intercepting people and returning them safely to France... is consistent with other treaties in international law,” betting on his party’s ability to end boat crossings within a period not exceeding two weeks.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Andy Burnum, who took office from Keir Starmer two weeks ago, announced his commitment to begin a “firm and relentless” confrontation to limit these crossing attempts.

France 24/AFP

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