Nigel Farage has said he will stop migrants crossing illegally into the UK within three months of winning the next general election.
The Reform UK leader told GB News he had struck an informal deal with a leading French politician who is tipped to run for the Presidency to allow the Royal Navy to tow back boats trying to cross illegally into southern England.
Speaking to this week’s Chopper’s Political Podcast, Farage said stopping the crossings was “vital for several reasons”.
These were “to make women and girls safer in Britain. Two, as a matter of national security. Three, as something costing billions of pounds a year. But number four is even bigger than the first three – re-establishing trust between voters and Government”.
He added: “The last six Prime Ministers have said publicly, on camera and to you, ‘if you come here illegally, you won’t be allowed to stay’. But the truth is, they are.
“So if Reform were to win the next general election, that is the thing we would have to solve in three months.”
Mr Farage said the UK “would have to be” outside the European Convention on Human Rights for this to happen, adding: “We are going to have to crack on.”
He said he had hammered out terms over lunch with French politician Jordan Bardella, president of the right-wing National Rally since 2022, who he said was “odds on favourite to be the next premier in France”.
He said: “I have sat with Jordan Bardella, who is odds on favourite to be the next premier in France. I took him for lunch in London. It was one of those lunches, the best French wines and some good food. The French – you got to look after them.
“And then sort of as pudding approached, I said, ‘well, I am very sorry, Jordan, but we’ve given you 800 million quid already, and this is before the next 660 million quid that’s been promised. I’m really sorry. Unless you stop this, I’m going to get the Royal Marines to tow boats back to France’.
“And it all went very quiet for a bit. Within an hour. He said, ‘I accept that. I get that’. Because, of course, can you imagine if you were a French property owner on the Northern French coast, what hell your life has been the last few years?”
