Farage warns of a ‘threat to public order’ if small boats issue is not resolved
Farage said the mood around the country is a mix of “total despair” and “rising anger”. Without significant action from the government then he sad he fears the anger “will grow”.
Farage said:
In fact, I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order and that is the very last thing that we want.
And I have been saying of course for a long time that it is a growing threat to our national security.
And we have seen just recently some arrests of people who came by boat and they are suspected of being involved in some form of terrorism.
Key events
Farage says the growing anger over the last few weeks (seen through demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country) is a “cultural one”.
In the sense that many of these young men come from countries in which women aren’t even second-class citizens and frankly the public have now just had enough.
And what began as a protest of mothers and concerned citizens outside the Bell Hotel in Epping has now spread right across the country.
And all of it really poses one big, fundamental question: whose side are you on? Are you on the side of women and children being safe on our streets or are you on the side of outdated, international treaties backed up by a series of dubious courts.
Farage warns of a ‘threat to public order’ if small boats issue is not resolved
Farage said the mood around the country is a mix of “total despair” and “rising anger”. Without significant action from the government then he sad he fears the anger “will grow”.
Farage said:
In fact, I think there is now, as a result of this, a genuine threat to public order and that is the very last thing that we want.
And I have been saying of course for a long time that it is a growing threat to our national security.
And we have seen just recently some arrests of people who came by boat and they are suspected of being involved in some form of terrorism.
The news conference has started. Farage said 650 people arrived into Dover yesterday and said there are “many more boats” on the way today.
We are expecting to hear more from Nigel Farage shortly. He will lay out his plans to curb illegal immigration at Oxford airport this morning. We will have a live feed at the top of the blog you can follow along to.
Reform could pay Taliban to take back migrants, senior party figure suggests
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Zia Yusuf also suggested that a Reform government would pay the Taliban to accept the return of migrants who entered Britain illegally.
Asked how Reform would persuade countries to take back illegal migrants, Yusuf said simply: “We have a £2bn budget to offer countries”. Today presenter Anna Foster said this figure was a “drop in the ocean”, something Yusuf took issue with. He replied:
Not really. It’s not a drop in the ocean to Afghanistan. Certainly not a drop in the ocean for Eritrea, the two countries that are top of the list of boat crossings …
This country already gives £151m a year to Afghanistan in the form of foreign aid.
I think it is quite reasonable. Again, British people have had enough of their goodwill being taken advantage of.
The notion that Afghans top the list in terms of foreign nationals crossing the Channel illegally, the majority of them fighting aged males, into this country while this country gives £151m of aid to Afghanistan.
We don’t think that’s fair. And I put it to you I don’t think the majority of people listening to this programme think it’s fair.
Yusuf said Reform plans to send back all illegal immigrants to the countries from which they came by empowering the foreign office to use the £2bn the party allocated for the department to do “return deals”.
Zia Yusuf, head of Reform’s government efficiency department, has been on BBC Radio 4’s today programme where he was pressed about Reform’s controversial migrant return proposals.
He said his party’s plans would emulate what has happened in Germany, which sent back 81 Afghan nationals with criminal records earlier this year.
The BBC presenter Anna Foster said the 81 Afghans who were returned were those who committed crimes in Germany. She suggested that Reform’s example of emulating what the German government did was flawed as there are tens of thousands of “ordinary” Afghans in Britain.
“How many more flights do you need? You’re not talking about, we’re not about millions of Afghans here, right? We’re talking about … the low tens of thousands, right? That can absolutely be done,” Yusuf said.
“The notion that it cannot be done. That sort of no we can’t attitude is precisely why the country is in the state that it is in. What is the alternative? The alternative we just allow Afghan nationals – the vast majority fighting age males – to just continue to arrive on our beaches without invitation.”
How would a Reform UK government negotiate to be able to return migrants to countries like Iran and Afghanistan?
Zia Yusuf from Reform tells @annaefoster how the party would use a £2bn budget for those talks. #R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) August 26, 2025
Government to warn people in camps in northern France they risk being deported back across Channel
The Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, is reporting that ministers are planning to launch a mass communications campaign to people waiting in camps in northern France to warn them that they risk being deported back to France, though opposition parties have claimed the numbers will be roughly one in 17 of those crossing the Channel. Here is an extract from her story:
A government source said: “Detentions of those arriving from France have been taking place over the last 24 hours, so these three small boat migrants may end up finding themselves being bussed to a detention centre before the day is out.
“We are shortly launching a big communications campaign right along the northern French coast, warning those in camps that if they travel they will be returned to France and that the money they have paid to criminal smuggling gangs will have been wasted.”
The source denied that potential asylum seekers needed a fixed address to make the claim for a safe route and said all of those who applied received communication from the Home Office.
Many people making the dangerous journey across the Channel are trying to escape rapid climate change, famine, oppressive governments and war across Africa, Asia and the Middle East but the reasons motivating their migration are rarely featured in political commentary, much of which is demonising and dehumanising.
If you are looking for some more context, the Guardian’s home affairs editor, Rajeev Syal, has this explainer on what other factors are behind the rise in Channel crossings.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has confirmed that the first small boats arrivals have been detained to send back to France under the one in, one out migrant deal.
Here are some of the quotes he gave to Times Radio presenter Rosie Wright when asked how much more capacity there is in the system to detain more people who have crossed the Channel:
Well, there is capacity in the system. But as you know, the pressures that we have in the debate about hotel use and other forms of contingency accommodation.
But that contingency accommodation, including hotels, including large scale government owned sites … for example, Napier Barracks in Kent, are there.
The housing minister was then asked how confident the one in one out scheme is sufficient to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.
Well, it’s early days in terms of this pilot scheme getting up and running. We are confident that as part of a wider comprehensive plan, it will act as a deterrent. But don’t forget, the key elements of our strategy are not yet enforced.
Our borders bill, which will give law enforcement new counter terror style powers to tackle the gangs who are running this vile trade that’s still going through parliament. French authorities are still reviewing their laws so that border enforcement teams on their side of the Channel can intervene in shallow waters.
So taken as a whole, yes, the package, we are confident will work. It won’t be a quick, overnight fix, but we’re taking the unglamorous, hard headed, practical steps needed to clamp down on this crisis. In contrast, I have to say to parties trying to hoodwink the British public with unworkable gimmicks.
UK ready to deport 100 migrants back across the Channel – report
Under the growing pressure from Reform and internal pressure from some Labour MPs, Keir Starmer has made tackling illegal immigration and “restoring order” to the asylum system a key political priority.
The number of people who have crossed the Channel on small boats since Labour took office last summer has recently exceeded 50,000, a milestone that Starmer did not want to reach so quickly.
Under a new “one in, one out” pilot scheme set up between the British and French governments over the summer, France will accept the return of undocumented people arriving in Britain by small boats, in exchange for Britain agreeing to accept an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections.
More than 100 asylum seekers have now been detained for deportation to France, the Times is reporting. The outlet says there are dozens of migrants in detention, including some arrested over the bank holiday weekend.
A government source told the Times:
Detentions of those arriving from France have been taking place over the last 24 hours, so these small boat migrants may end up finding themselves being bussed to a detention centre before the day is out.
Farage to unveil deportation plans as Reform suggests it is possible to remove all illegal immigrants from UK
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. Nigel Farage will outline Reform’s plans to tackle small boats crossings this morning, setting out his party’s stall for government if it wins the next general election, expected in 2029.
The Reform party leader has claimed that his plans will lead to the “mass deportation” of hundreds of thousands of migrants and will prevent anyone entering illegally from ever being able to claim asylum.
A central tenant of Farage’s platform is disapplying swathes of international law to make removals easier. How tenable these plans are remains to be seen as the party would likely face many legal obstacles.
Reform is promising to leave the European court of human rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and disapply international treaties like the Refugee Convention.
Writing in the Telegraph, Farage said:
No longer will these malign influences be allowed to frustrate deportations. The planes will take off, and plenty of them at that.
The time has come to put this country first. This is all a question of priorities.
Is Keir Starmer on the side of the British people, national security and protecting women and girls – or is he on the side of outdated international treaties and human rights lawyers?
Reform only have four MPs but have had an outsized impact on Labour’s stance on illegal migration, pushing them to adopt ever more right-wing positions and intensify its rhetoric on the issue.
The government has set out its plan to close asylum hotels by the end of the parliament and the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a “one in, one out” returns deal with France last month.
But there is a rising political urgency around the issue as Reform continues to lead polls and asylum hotel demonstrations spread across the country.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Zia Yusuf, head of Reform’s government efficiency department, insisted it is possible to remove all illegal immigrants from the UK despite Farage having previously called it a “political impossibility”.
“(Nigel Farage) said it was a political impossibility. His view on that clearly has decisively changed because of the facts on the ground and the fact that we’ve now done the work that this not only can be done, it must be done,” he said. “The social contract in this country is hanging by a thread.”
Yusuf said Reform UK would set up a new agency called the “deportation command” and that under the plans those who have entered the UK illegal would be detained and “not be allowed to roam around inside the community”.
He added:
And this is a temporary programme, so regardless where they are, regardless of the accommodation, they will be gone at the end of Nigel’s first term.
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