Farage could start another party to push for action on migration crisis
NIGEL Farage is plotting a new political party to pressure Boris Johnson into taking tougher action to tackle the migrant crisis. The former Ukip leader said he has been approached by donors offering to back a new venture.
Mr Farage quit frontline politics in March after Brexit was delivered but has continued to campaign for tougher measures to prevent migrants crossing the Channel on small boats.
Last night, he said that taking on the Government at the ballot box was the only way to deliver change.
‘I have been warning for months that this issue was going to explode and nobody has been listening,’ he said. ‘I know from experience that unless somebody kicks the Conservative Party hard they will not change.
‘My gut instinct has been that I don’t want to go back into politics. But this is an issue of national importance.’ One minister warned last night that the Government is vulnerable to a potential challenge from the Right unless it gets a grip on the migrant crisis.
‘The sight of hundreds of people arrivFrance,’ ing illegally in little boats drives my constituents mad,’ the minister said. ‘Is it is a visible, daily sign that we have not got our borders under control.’
Mr Farage said he wanted migrants crossing the Channel to the UK to be returned immediately.
‘Anyone arriving here illegally should be put straight back on the ferry to he said. ‘But while the European Convention on Human Rights is still law, getting rid of anyone is a nightmare once they have set foot here.’
Priti Patel blamed Brussels for the Channel crossings crisis yesterday as she came under fire from her own backbenchers. The Home Secretary insisted that progress was being made in talks with the French on the issue.
But the latest figures show three times as many migrants have crossed the Channel this year compared with 2020. Another 886 arrived on Saturday, the Home Office said, taking the total to more than 25,000.
Tory grandee Sir Edward Leigh said: ‘We told the people at the referendum, us Brexiteers, that we would take back control, it’s clear that in this we have lost control.’
‘Put straight back on the ferry to France’
The failure to solve the migrant crisis was already deeply embarrassing for the Government. With nigel Farage threatening to return to frontline politics, things could soon become much worse.
Voters trusted the Tories to regain control of our borders. But with a staggering 25,000 crossing the Channel illegally this year, that trust is not being honoured.
Vile people traffickers grow ever richer, lives are at risk and here, especially in coastal and eurosceptic northern constituencies, people are angry.
To prevent his Red Wall support crumbling, Mr Johnson must take radical action.