Reform UK vows Royal Navy Channel crackdown and mass deportations

Reform UK will send the Royal Navy into the English Channel to intercept all migrant boats, with home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf calling it the "largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two". Yusuf said a Nigel Farage-led government would "stop the boats in our first year" and would not only secure the border but deport everybody in the country illegally.

The promise immediately raises questions about what the Navy could legally and operationally do at sea, and whether France would accept people taken from small boats back onto its territory. Yusuf was challenged on BBC Breakfast over whether boats could actually be returned to France unless Paris agreed. Reform has also suggested it could deport 600,000 people over five years if it won power, backed by £2bn to persuade countries such as Afghanistan to accept returnees, with sanctions possible against countries that refuse.

House of Commons Library figures show small-boat arrivals peaked in 2022 at 46,000, fell in 2023 and then rose again to around 39,000 in the year ending March 2026, accounting for about 90% of people detected arriving in the UK without authorisation.

Labour moved quickly to attack Reform's plan. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the party's migrant plans "racist and immoral", while other critics called the military and deportation proposals unworkable. Reform has already retreated on one part of the policy after briefly appearing to include unaccompanied minors in the deportation scheme; Nigel Farage later said deporting unaccompanied children was not part of the party's first-term plans.

A new £662m small-boats agreement would place at least 50 French police officers trained in riot and crowd-control tactics on beaches in France, alongside drones, helicopters and camera systems.