Reform UK has unveiled a plan to use the military to stop small boat crossings and forcibly return migrants to France or Belgium if it wins power, as Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf prepared to set out the policy at a Westminster press conference on Monday. The party says “operation fortress” would involve the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and British army, and it has billed the idea as the “largest military operation” in the Channel since World War Two.
The proposals have already drawn criticism from opponents, who say they are unworkable and may breach international law. A retired Royal Navy commander said the scheme lacked substance and warned that Border Force is already responsible for intercepting small boats, while the Conservatives said the policy was not credible.
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of UK politics. Reform UK is today pledging to use the to stop small boat crossings if the party wins the next general election. The boats in the channel would be intercepted by the Navy and returned to France or Belgium under a plan called “operation fortress”.
The party proposes to set up a joint military command with units from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and British army as well as a surveillance command to track incoming boats. Similar proposals have been suggested by the Conservatives before, but never materialised due to concerns around legality and the potential flouting of international treaties.
Last Wednesday was the busiest day for small boat crossings across the Channel so far this year, with 752 people arriving in the UK, as ’s political correspondent, Alexandra Topping, notes.
But official provisional figures indicate that 14,526 have entered the UK so far in 2026, 43% lower than the number recorded by this time last year (25,436) and down 14% on the same period in 2024 (16,903).
In reaction to Reform’s pledge, a Labour party spokesperson said Nigel Farage’s party “have reheated an old announcement in their latest desperate bid to distract from their growing sleaze scandals”.
Retired Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe, meanwhile, suggested the proposal “lacks quite a lot of substance”. “We have the border force already to do this,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
Farage is fighting a byelection after resigning his seat of Clacton in an attempt to shake off a deepening donations scandal, by ’s City editor, Anna Issac, that he had failed to declare a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
All other mainstream parties have declined to stand a candidate against him, making a mockery of what Farage tried to frame as a “people versus the establishment” byelection. Farage is set to comfortably win the contest – but has gifted the political stage to the new government who have announced a raft of policies and been on a media blitz over recent weeks.
Reform UK’s increasingly hard-right policies and rhetoric come as it loses support to Restore Britain, a breakaway party even further to the right which is led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
Lowe has been a thorn in Farage’s side since he was stripped of the Reform party whip last year after being accused of bullying and making alleged threats against the then party chair, Zia Yusuf, claims that he denies.
, Lowe extended an olive branch to Farage, offering him a deal to unite the so-called “patriotic right” of British politics, as Andy Burnham improves Labour’s polling and aims to win back some of the same voters Reform UK is targeting.
In a statement not explicitly mentioning the offer from Restore or Rupert Lowe’s name, Farage said he recognised the need to accept support from other parties and said Reform has “always been open to anyone”.
Farage will appear at a press conference in Westminster alongside Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, from 11am. He will likely be asked about the potential Reform-Restore pact, his Royal Navy policy and his finances.
, Zia Yusuf expressed disappointment in Reform UK’s performance in both the Manchester mayoral election and the Makerfield parliamentary election.
The party’s home affairs spokesperson said:
double quotation markWe have had a few election results that have been disappointing. And we acknowledge that. We look at that. We want to keep learning and we want to keep listening to voters and making sure that we’re making the case for why we need a Reform government.
How would Reform’s small boats plan work?
Reform says military-crewed inflatable boats deployed from Navy patrol vessels would come alongside small boats crossing the Channel. Border Force officers and police would then arrest the people on board before Royal Navy personnel or Royal Marines escorted them back to France or Belgium.
The party says it would seek to disembark migrants at ports with French agreement, but insists that returns would happen even if Paris refused. Yusuf said the party would show “unflinching resolve” and added that if the Élysée Palace declined, Royal Marines would disembark people “safely on the very shore they left that morning”.
double quotation markWe would far rather disembark people in port, walk people down a gangway and hand them to the French authorities properly,” he added.
Farage said the Royal Navy should be used to protect Britain from what he described as invasion. “When you think about it, what is the Royal Navy for?” he said.
double quotation markIf the Royal Navy is not there to protect this country from invasion, then, frankly, I can’t see what its purpose is.
Reform also argues that the operation would be humanitarian and compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Yusuf said Article 2, which protects the right to life, would support the policy and said the UK and France could have “a diplomatic argument” if French authorities refused to accept people returned to their shores.
Why are critics questioning the plan?
Critics have said the proposal is unrealistic and may run into legal and operational barriers. Tom Sharpe, the retired Royal Navy commander, said the Border Force was better suited to handling arrivals and suggested warships were not the right tool for ferrying people around.
double quotation markWhen you start looking at what ships we have, which is basically none – I mean, he’s talking about the largest maritime operation in the Channel since World War Two, a very evocative image, but that’s not the reality,” Sharpe told the Today programme.
double quotation markWe don’t have the ships,” he said, adding that using warships might be a waste of resources, if their anti-air and anti-submarine capabilities were better suited to other scenarios.
double quotation markYou’re better off using an actual ferry,” he said.
He also warned that France might refuse to accept migrants taken to French shores by British forces, which would create further practical problems. In the second outlet’s coverage, Sharpe was quoted as saying warships designed for anti-submarine defences “are not best used for ferrying people around”.
Labour attacked the announcement as recycled political messaging, while the Conservatives also rejected it. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said leaving the European Convention on Human Rights should be the government’s priority if it wanted to tackle illegal migration.
double quotation markThat would enable us to deport every single illegal immigrant within a week of arrival,” he told BBC Breakfast. “Either back to their country of origin if possible, or a safe third country, for example Rwanda, if not.
double quotation markThis would bring a “deterrent effect” as migrants would no longer cross the channel if they knew they would be deported straight away.
double quotation markReform’s policy I am afraid as usual is on the back of a fag packet. By the way I am not averse to taking actions at sea if it’s credible but Reform policy isn’t credible.”
Labour, meanwhile, said Reform had “reheated an old announcement in their latest desperate bid to distract from their growing sleaze scandals”. The government says it is already tightening enforcement and targeting the criminal gangs behind the crossings.
What do the latest figures show about crossings?
Official figures suggest crossings remain a major political issue even as the trend has fallen from its peak. Between 1 January and 1 August 2026, a total of 14,526 people crossed the English Channel by small boat from France, down 43% on the same period in 2025.
That follows a busy week in which 752 people arrived in the UK on the busiest day so far this year. The second outlet also reported that 326 people crossed the English Channel on Saturday and that more than 2,000 migrants have arrived in the UK on small boats since Burnham became prime minister.
Home Office figures show crossings have been on a downward trend since peaking in 2022. The second outlet said small boat arrivals have become the most common way for people to be detected entering the UK illegally since 2020.
Nearly all those who arrive by small boat claim asylum, which means they are generally allowed to remain in the country while their claims are considered. Small boat arrivals accounted for 42% of asylum applications between April 2025 and March 2026.
The average number of people per boat has also risen. Boats arriving in the UK from 2 August 2025 to 1 August 2026 carried an average of 67 people, more than double the average in 2021.
Experts say overcrowding increases the risk of deaths at sea. The second outlet said at least 84 people died while attempting to cross the Channel in 2024, according to the United Nations.
It also said people arriving by small boat made up about 5% of total immigration into the UK from January 2025 to December 2025, and that people from Eritrea accounted for 18% of arrivals from April 2025 to March 2026.
According to the Home Office, at least 2,000 people who arrived by small boat in the latest annual figures were identified as potential victims of human trafficking or other forms of modern slavery. Another 4,535 people were detected entering the UK without permission through other routes, including by hiding in vehicles, on ferries or through airports, between April 2025 and March 2026, down 22% year on year.
The government has pledged to “smash the gangs” behind the crossings, while also saying the number of National Crime Agency officers tackling people-smuggling gangs has risen to almost 800 from 376 at the start of 2025.
At the weekend, the prime minister visited Dover and said the government was “changing the whole approach” to small boats.
Where does this leave Reform’s wider political strategy?
The policy announcement comes as Reform faces internal and external pressure. The party is losing support to Restore Britain, which is led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, and Lowe has now publicly urged Farage to work with him.
In a video posted on X on Sunday, Lowe said there could be enough common ground for the two movements to cooperate and called on Farage to put differences aside.
double quotation markI truly believe there could be sufficient common ground for our two movements to cooperate collectively, destroy the looming leftwing alliance that will finish off what hope remains for this country.
double quotation markIn my view, failing to even try because of our own personal difficulties is simply not an option. Now is the time to put our differences aside and cooperate for the good of the country that we all love.
The offer came after Restore Britain placed fourth in the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection, where its candidate, Marlon West, took 8.7% of the vote. Reform’s Sian Astley came second on 21%, behind Labour’s Andy Burnham’s successor, Bev Craig.
Lowe asked Farage to put “personalities and our past disagreements aside” and set five conditions for any cooperation:
Mass deportation of illegal migrants “including women and children”.
Tougher rules on legal migration, a ban on halal and kosher slaughter, the burqa, cousin marriage and sharia courts.
A referendum on the death penalty.
Welfare cuts to fund “self-sufficiency”.
The exclusion of former Tory ministers from any future cabinet.
“Mass deportations must become a political inevitability,” he said. “They must all go.”
Farage is fighting a byelection after resigning his seat of Clacton in an attempt to shake off a deepening donations scandal, by ’s City editor, Anna Issac, that he had failed to declare a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
All other mainstream parties have declined to stand a candidate against him, making a mockery of what Farage tried to frame as a “people versus the establishment” byelection. Farage is set to comfortably win the contest – but has gifted the political stage to the new government who have announced a raft of policies and been on a media blitz over recent weeks.
Reform UK’s increasingly hard-right policies and rhetoric come as it loses support to Restore Britain, a breakaway party even further to the right which is led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
Lowe has been a thorn in Farage’s side since he was stripped of the Reform party whip last year after being accused of bullying and making alleged threats against the then party chair, Zia Yusuf, claims that he denies.
In a statement not explicitly mentioning the offer from Restore or Rupert Lowe’s name, Farage said he recognised the need to accept support from other parties and said Reform has “always been open to anyone”.
Farage will appear at a press conference in Westminster alongside Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, from 11am. He will likely be asked about the potential Reform-Restore pact, his Royal Navy policy and his finances.
, Zia Yusuf expressed disappointment in Reform UK’s performance in both the Manchester mayoral election and the Makerfield parliamentary election.
The party’s home affairs spokesperson said:
double quotation markWe have had a few election results that have been disappointing. And we acknowledge that. We look at that. We want to keep learning and we want to keep listening to voters and making sure that we’re making the case for why we need a Reform government.
What did Reform say at the press conference?
At the news conference, Yusuf said the party would seek to work with France if it could, but would proceed regardless if it could not. He also said the plans were inspired in part by what he had seen in Ceuta, where he said soldiers were using pepper spray and migrants were being moved away by the military.
double quotation markI saw soldiers using pepper spray into interacting directly with migrants that were acting in a disorderly fashion.
double quotation markAnd in using the military, what I saw was Spain was able to remove, effectively send back, what looked like north of 40,000 illegal migrants in the space of a day.
Yusuf described the scheme as “humanitarian” and said the party believed the military could play a direct role in returning people who cross the Channel unlawfully. He said the UK and France had a “commitment under international law” to process migrants, though he accepted that diplomatic conflict could follow if French authorities refused to cooperate.
The second outlet also reported that the party says the scheme would operate alongside broader claims that the small boats crisis can be tackled by stronger action at sea and tougher enforcement against smuggling gangs.
For now, Reform is presenting the announcement as a major test of political will. Its opponents say the plan is neither lawful nor practical; Reform says it is the only way to create a deterrent. That disagreement is likely to dominate the party’s latest effort to put migration at the centre of the political debate.
Key Facts
- Reform UK says it would use the military to intercept and return small boat migrants to France or Belgium.
- The party says its plan would create the “largest military operation” in the Channel since World War Two.
- Official figures show 14,526 people crossed the Channel by small boat between 1 January and 1 August 2026, down 43% on the same period in 2025.
- Critics including a retired Royal Navy commander and the Conservatives have said the plan is not credible.
- Nigel Farage is due to face questions about the policy, a possible deal with Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain and his finances.
