Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has vowed to deploy the Royal Navy to the English Channel to prevent illegal migrants from reaching British shores.
Announcing what the party claims would be the largest military operation in the Channel since the end of the Second World War, Reform said that if given power, it would enact a naval blockade to make the waterway “impenetrable” to boat migrants and their people smuggler backers.
According to The Telegraph, “Operation Fortress” would see unauthorised boats detained by the Royal Navy, who would provide them with food and water before escorting them back to the French coastline.
The party said that the recent scenes at the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, in which some 60,000 illegals flooded across its border with Morocco in just one day last week, demonstrated the urgency for Britain to take control of its borders.
In a press conference on Monday morning, Mr Farage said that the plan is necessary given that many of the “young males of fighting age” who cross the English Channel illegally “wish us harm or do us harm”.
“Operation Fortress will be a combined military operation; it will save lives, it will help the French in fulfilling their job of stopping the boats, and it will save a huge amount of money.
“And when you think about it, what is the Royal Navy for? If the Royal Navy is not there to protect this country from invasion, then frankly I can’t see what its purpose is.”
The policy would likely be popular with the public. According to a More in Common survey in 2025, 69 per cent of British voters would support deploying the Royal Navy to the Channel to stop illegals from arriving. In comparison, just 18 per cent said that they would oppose such a move.
Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said: “Britain is being invaded. Tory and Labour governments responded with a free ferry service and free hotels. Reform UK will respond by launching the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two.”
The plan is reminiscent of the Operation Sovereign Borders initiative enacted under former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2013, which all but stopped illegal boat migration to the country after tens of thousands of migrants from countries like Indonesia started to arrive on Australian shores.
Although the hard-line approach, which saw migrants either returned home directly or sent to offshore processing centres, drew condemnation from the United Nations, the policy was upheld as lawful by the Australian Supreme Court in 2015, potentially setting a precedent for the plan put forward by Farage’s Reform party.
Abbot himself has long argued that Britain should adopt a similar approach toward France, previously saying that Paris has “no right to wave on their problems to Britain just because they are unwilling or unable to control their own borders.”
While this approach may have ruffled feathers under the current French government, it is likely that “Operation Fortress” would not come into effect until after the next French Presidential election, scheduled for April of next year.
The current occupant of the Élysée Palace, President Emmanuel Macron, has steadfastly refused to agree to any deal with London on migrant boat pushbacks, claiming it would violate international maritime law. However, with Macron being term-limited and therefore ineligible to run next year, it is likely that a new government may be more amenable to Reform’s plans.
Indeed, earlier this year, French National Rally leader Jordan Bardella — Marine Le Pen’s second-in-command — said that he envisions a “patriotic alliance” between Britain and France to combat the migrant crisis. Bardella also explicitly vowed to support the UK in pushing migrant boats back to France.
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