Nigel Farage branded Channel migrants a ‘national security emergency’ today as he claimed Rishi Sunak was powerless to stop boats crossing.
The Reform UK president launched the election campaign of Dover candidate Howard Cox today – having refusing to run for a seat himself at the general election.
In a hardline speech he claimed the Prime Minister called an early election on July 4 because he knew his plan to deport Channel migrants to Rwanda would not work.
He also doubled down on his attack on British Muslims, which has led to criticism from the Tories and other politicians, and defended his use of the term ‘invasion’ to describe the situation facing Britain.
He cited recent hardline comments by his former enemy, Polish PM and ex-EU leader Donald Tusk about the threat of migrants arriving in Poland from Belarus, saying: ‘If it is a matter of national security in Poland, I think what we ought to be doing with this situation here is declaring a national security emergency. And this is an emergency.’
The Reform UK president launched its election campaign in Dover today – despite refusing to run for a seat himself at the general election.
In a hardline speech he claimed the Prime Minister called an early election on July 4 because he knew his plan to deport Channel migrants to Rwanda would not work.
He also doubled down on his attack on British Muslims, which has led to criticism from the Tories and other politicians, and defended his use of the term ‘invasion’ to describe the situation facing Britain.
He stood in front of a Union Flag backdrop with the words “Britain needs reform” and in front of a podium that said “Rishi can’t stop the boats” to announce the candidacy of Howard Cox in Dover.
He said Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer were “men with the appearance and energy of middle managers vying to become a national leader.”
Mr Farage said he was “very disappointed” to decide not to stand in the election and said he felt he could not fight a seat and campaign around the country in six weeks.
He has previously failed to win a seat in seven attempts.
He clashed with Richard Madeley today as the Good Morning Britain host challenged his controversial comments on Muslims by asking, ‘What on earth were you talking about?’
The Reform UK honorary president provoked a backlash on Sunday when he warned of the ‘growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values’ and ‘loathe much of what we stand for’.
He later clarified he was talking about Muslims.
Mr Madeley challenged the former UKIP leader on his comments this morning by quoting the findings of a major review of the existing polling carried out in 2018 by IPSOS Mori.
‘They found absolutely conclusively that Muslims in the UK attach more importance on being British than the general population,’ he said.
’85 per cent feel they truly belong to Britain, 55 per cent feel that their national identity as British is very important to them and that compares to 44 per cent of the general population. So I’m bound to ask, what on earth were you talking about there?’
