{"id":726537,"date":"2026-08-03T21:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/726537\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T21:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:06:23","slug":"is-reform-uks-plan-to-use-the-navy-to-stop-small-boat-crossings-feasible-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/726537\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Reform UK\u2019s plan to use the navy to stop small boat crossings feasible? | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, whose summer has been dominated by the Guardian\u2019s disclosure of a \u00a35m undeclared gift<\/a> and his connections with a fraudster, emerged on Monday to claim that his party would launch the \u201clargest military operation in the English Channel since world war two\u201d to prevent small boat crossings.<\/p>\n

Pointing to unrest at the Spain-Morocco border, he said the Royal Navy<\/a> would be sent to the Channel to intercept all dinghies carrying asylum seekers should his party win power at the next general election.<\/p>\n

Under so-called Operation Fortress, migrants would be detained and given food and water before being returned \u201cunder escort\u201d on naval vessels to France or Belgium. But sceptics have questioned whether the plans would work.<\/p>\n

What would the Royal Navy be asked to do?<\/p>\n

Reform\u2019s policy document indicates that navy offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), instead of the Border Force\u2019s fleet of five cutters and six patrol ships, would \u201cclose on and shadow\u201d dinghies in the Channel.<\/p>\n

Three OPVs, each nearly 80 metres (262ft) long, are deployed around the UK, though they are due to be decommissioned in 2028 and may be sold to Uruguay. One, HMS Tyne, is currently shadowing a Russian frigate, the Neustrashimy, in the North Sea with a French corvette.<\/p>\n

An alternative, said Tom Sharpe, a former navy commander, would be to deploy a frigate, though he said it would be \u201can incredible waste of a military asset, to do a Border Force or ferrying job with a specialist warship\u201d.<\/p>\n

What does the Royal Navy think?<\/p>\n

A master of any ship is taught they have a duty \u201cto render assistance\u201d to any person in danger of being lost at sea, and to proceed \u201cwith all possible speed\u201d to those in distress, as spelled out in article 98 of the UN convention on the law on the sea, the foundation of maritime law.<\/p>\n

Though each incident will be different, Reform envisages that Royal Marines on inflatables would approach what are often packed dinghies to pick up those onboard \u2013 though refugees and migrants may not be compliant as they are likely to fear arrest.<\/p>\n

John Foreman, a former navy captain, said: \u201cMariners are obliged to rescue people at sea in distress and to not create conditions for putting them in distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has the UK deployed the navy to intercept small boats before?<\/p>\n

Yes. In 2022, Boris Johnson\u2019s government launched Operation Isotrope, which the then home secretary, Priti Patel, said would attempt to make crossing the Channel \u201cunviable\u201d.<\/p>\n

A tentative plan for \u201cpushbacks\u201d \u2013 where ships are used to force small boats to turn around back towards France \u2013 was abandoned after concerns from military figures that it would be impractical, dangerous, and leave naval officers open to legal action.<\/p>\n

Does Farage say this new plan is different?<\/p>\n

Yes. He told reporters: \u201cThis is not pushback. We are talking about rescue and return.\u201d He said the French government would be expected to accept the returned asylum seekers, claiming he had spoken to unnamed French politicians about the plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cDealing with this problem would be a great, great relief to the people of northern France,\u201d he added. \u201cAttitudes towards this [in France] are starting to change, and they\u2019re also beginning to realise that we have given them a lot of money and this would in fact, be helping them with their objectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I guarantee you that they\u2019ll welcome this with open arms? I can\u2019t, but can I say there is a softening of attitude towards this position? Yes,\u201d Farage said.<\/p>\n

If the French government declined to accept the returns, Reform\u2019s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said the marines would return them anyway to the French coast.<\/p>\n

What problems do experts in immigration policy envisage with these plans?<\/p>\n

Colin Yeo, a leading immigration barrister, said it should be \u201cutterly obvious\u201d that such a move would be a violation of French sovereignty and an illegal act of international aggression.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one needs a specific law citing to them to know that invading another country is wrong. But article 2(4) of the UN charter forbids \u2018the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at Oxford University\u2019s Migration Observatory, said whether or not the plan would work hinged on the French government\u2019s consent and if it would accept the returns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the UK returned asylum seekers to France without its permission, one plausible scenario is that this would have major diplomatic consequences, prompting France to suspend existing cooperation such as intelligence sharing and beach patrols in northern France. It is possible it would attempt to repel the British ships to prevent further returns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How has France responded to the proposals?<\/p>\n

One French official told the Guardian that such plans would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d. \u201cThe [French] government would clearly not expect a key ally such as the UK to infringe on territory or waters without consent,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, whose summer has been dominated by the Guardian\u2019s disclosure of a \u00a35m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-726537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}