The vice-chairman of Reform UK has revealed how his party would deal with France if they ever implemented their plan to crack down on the surge in small boats entering Britain.
Richard Tice told Sky News on Sunday morning with Trevor Phillips that Britain could have a “friendly confrontation” with the French, but he was quick to remove “war” from the equation.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips yesterday about what he described as the Labour government’s inability to “crush the gangs”, Mr Tice said: “It’s very simple. The government’s policy of crushing the gangs is clearly not working and people are literally dying, unfortunately… The only way to stop the boats is a variation on what Australia did.
“We’ve been through this before. I repeat: you must collect the ship safely and return it to France, as we have a legal right to do under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“And by the way, France has a legal obligation to do the same, and they are in breach of that. That is why we have a legal right to do this.
“If the French coastguard says ‘you are not coming in’, that is a breach of international law.”
Richard Tice told Sky News with Trevor Phillips on Sunday morning that Britain could have a ‘friendly confrontation’ with the French
Border Force officers escort migrants to Dover Docks in Kent, UK on October 25, 2024
Asked how he would deal with the possibility of France refusing to take migrants back, Mr Tice said: ‘Well, then we have a stalemate… I’m not saying we should go to war, but we can have a friendly confrontation with friends.
‘It’s the only way to stop the deaths. We have a friendly and compassionate policy.’
The comments from the vice-chair of Reform UK come as it was revealed Labour could open more asylum centres in the wake of renewed fears that there will soon be no more space.
Demand for families has soared as almost 150,000 migrants have crossed the border in the past six years.
In June, there were almost 30,000 migrants in more than 250, costing the taxpayer £4.2m every day.
While no figures have been confirmed for the new number of asylum hotels, a Home Office source told the Times more will be added in the “days and weeks”.
However, the insider claimed the number was lower than what the Conservatives had outlined ahead of Labour’s heartless landslide in the 2024 general election.
A group of people believed to be migrants are taken from a Border Force vessel to Dover, Kent following an incident involving a small boat in the Channel on October 15, 2024
Border Force officers escort migrants into Dover Docks in Kent, UK on October 25, 2024
“When we came to power, and even before that, during the discussions about access, we were told that the previous government had drawn up plans to open dozens of new asylum hotels,” the source told the Times newspaper.
“This was because the number of migrants crossing the Channel had increased by 18 per cent in the first half of the year and they had not processed any new claims.”
Ministers are developing contingency plans to prevent a repeat of the situation in autumn 2022, when Manston asylum centre in Kent became dangerously overcrowded, leading to illness and violence due to insufficient ‘upstream accommodation’ for migrants after they had been processed.
Yvette Cooper is optimistic that the Home Office will process the 87,217 pending claims within one to one-and-a-half years by increasing the decision rate.
There are currently a further 137,525 people waiting for a response to their appeals or waiting to be removed from Britain.
It is believed that 28,645 people have crossed the Channel this year up to and including Friday, almost eight percent more than at the same time last year.
Yesterday a large group of migrants were seen trying to cross the Channel on a small boat
At least 55 people have died crossing the Channel in what has been described as the deadliest year for the crossing to date.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘This Government has inherited an asylum system under unprecedented pressure, with thousands of people stuck in a backlog without their claims being processed.
‘We have taken immediate action to restart the asylum process, which is estimated to save taxpayers £7 billion over the next decade.
‘In the long term, this will reduce our reliance on hotels and accommodation costs.
‘We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers and continue to identify a range of accommodation options to minimise their use.’
Almost 300 migrants crossed the Channel on the same day. Tragically, three people died and dozens were rescued during the perilous journey last week.