'We'll Stand up for Britain': Nigel Farage Vows Biggest Royal Navy Channel Operation Since WWII Amid French Backlash

Nigel Farage has pledged what he calls the 'biggest Royal Navy Channel operation since World War II', vowing to send British warships to intercept small boats and return migrants to French ports even if Paris refuses permission, should Reform UK win power.

The plan amounts to the sharpest escalation yet in Britain's long-running political battle over Channel crossings. More than 2,000 migrants have arrived on small boats in the two weeks since Andy Burnham became prime minister, with 326 people making the journey last Saturday.

Home Office figures show crossings so far this year have fallen by about 43 per cent compared with the same period in 2025, but that has not stopped Farage attempting to shift the debate back to one of his core issues.

What Reform's Channel Plan Actually Means and Why France Says No

Under Reform's proposals, set out in a 28-page policy document, ten Royal Navy patrol vessels would deploy military-crewed inflatable boats to 'come alongside' migrant dinghies in the Channel. Border Force officers and police on board would arrest those on the small boats, before Navy personnel or Royal Marines transported them back to France or Belgium.

A Bay Class landing ship would provide 'detention capacity at sea' for up to 700 people.

At a news conference, Reform's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the party would first seek French agreement to disembark arrested migrants in French ports. If Paris refused, he said, 'make no mistake, His Majesty's Royal Marines will disembark them safely on the very shore they left that morning.'

France's interior ministry responded quickly, saying such operations 'would constitute a violation of French sovereignty, as well as a violation of the law of the sea and international law.' A spokesperson said measures already agreed with the UK had contributed to a fall in crossings this year.

Reform maintains it is on firm legal ground, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and its duty to 'render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost.'

A Reform spokesperson said: 'Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law. We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether Emmanuel Macron likes it or not.'

Legal specialists disagree. Professor Andrew Serdy, an expert on the law of the sea at the University of Southampton, said the plan 'would require the agreement of France, which is a bold assumption to make, as there is no reason to expect it to agree.'

Maritime lawyer James Turner KC said that while UNCLOS allows states to enforce immigration laws in a 'contiguous zone' up to 24 nautical miles from their coasts, it does not permit a country to 'collect asylum seekers in its contiguous zone, or anywhere else, and take them back to the state they set off from.'

A 'Billion-Pound Taxi Service'? Military Experts Dismiss Reform's Navy Plan

Retired Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe said that the proposal 'lacks quite a lot of substance,' saying a 'billion-pound warship that's configured for anti-air warfare or anti-submarine warfare... is not best used ferrying people around. You're better off using an actual ferry.'

He noted a similar Conservative plan in 2020 coincided with crossings almost doubling, with warships derided at the time as a 'taxi service.'

Labour called the scheme 'gimmicky' and accused Reform of reheating a Conservative policy to distract from financial scandals involving Farage's party, with a spokesperson pointing to 46,000 attempted crossings stopped and 70,000 people removed.

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said Reform's plan would mean 'a lot of time arguing with France, and not enough time actually getting to grips with the problem.'

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp called the plan 'not credible,' asking how Reform would 'disembark immigrants back in France if the French don't agree,' and dismissed it as 'on the back of a fag packet.'

Labour and Tories Unite Against Reform's Credibility

Yusuf accepts there would be a 'diplomatic argument' with France but claims Paris has 'a commitment under international law' to process migrants, and has suggested that French refusal would amount to a 'crime against humanity'. Reform has not explained what would follow if France made the same accusation in return.