Nigel Farage has intensified his attack on Prime Minister Andy Burnham over the Channel small boats crisis, accusing the government of lacking the political resolve to stop the crossings.
Speaking to The Sun, the Reform UK leader said Mr Burnham had “no more guts” to tackle the issue than former prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson.
“They tell the public what they want to hear,” Mr Farage said. “None of them have got the balls to actually deal with this. And I tell you what, I have.”
He also turned his fire on France, questioning the value of British cooperation with Emmanuel Macron’s government.
“Give us our billion quid back then,” Mr Farage said, referring to British funding for efforts to combat Channel crossings.
He said: “Well, give us our billion quid back then. We’ve given them a billion quid to stop the boats.
The French navy literally escorts the boats to the 12-mile line and hands them over to the British authorities.
“Under the international rule of the sea, if people are in peril, and frankly anyone on those insecure boats is in peril, we are perfectly entitled to take them back to the safest next place of land, and that’s France, the safe country that they’ve come from.”
He claimed French authorities effectively escort migrant boats towards British waters before handing responsibility to the UK.
Mr Farage argued that Britain should return migrants to France when they are intercepted, citing international maritime rules concerning people in peril at sea. Such claims about the legal framework are contested and would depend on the circumstances of individual rescues.
The Reform leader also framed the issue as one of national security and public safety, warning that continued crossings could result in further deaths in the Channel.
He said migrants who make the journey can subsequently become vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gangs and modern slavery.
“I want to stop the boats to save lives, because people are dying,” he said. “We should be hanging our heads in shame over this.”
He said: “I want to stop the boats in the interest of national security. I want to stop the boats in the interest of the safety of women and girls.
Mr Farage added: “We should be hanging our heads in shame over this.”
The intervention places migration back at the centre of Reform’s challenge to the government, with Farage seeking to portray Labour and its predecessors as unwilling to take sufficiently forceful action.
For Mr Burnham, the political test is increasingly straightforward: whether his government can demonstrate that tougher rhetoric on Channel migration translates into fewer crossings.
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