Safe to say Reform UK is not the first
political party to come forward with an
idea to stop the problems of the small
boat or the migrant crossings, but no
plan has ever been this radical. To put
it in context again, their plan
essentially is to deport people
equivalent to the size of a city of
Glasgow during a parliamentary term and
it will include making payments to
terrorist groups such as the Taliban.
LBC's correspondent in the Southeast,
Emma Core, reports from Dover. Emma.
>> Well, Nick, I'm looking out to the
French coastline across from Dover's
seafront. This year, we've seen record
levels of migrants making the journey
across the channel. Almost 29,000 people
have arrived here since January. 950
people over the bank holiday weekend
alone with projections that could exceed
50,000 by the end of the year.
Yesterday, Nigel Farage described again
what's happening here as an invasion and
delivered his plan to stop people
arriving here in Dover.
>> The only way
we will stop the boats
is by detaining and deporting absolutely
anyone that comes via that route. And if
we do that,
the boats will stop coming within days.
Reform's plan dubbed Operation Restoring
Justice would be to able to detain and
deport up to 600,000 illegal migrants
over 5 years, withdrawing from the
European Convention on Human Rights and
scrapping the Human Rights Act while
establishing largecale removal centers
in remote parts of the UK. Here in
Dover, locals this morning have told me
they've got mixed views on his
proposals.
I think we have too many that come in
without working just draining off the
state. I think it's a difficult
situation. Something's got to be done.
Whether just deporting everybody in a wa
is the right answer. I'm not convinced.
There's just too many here at the moment
that's just draining off the state.
>> I think the danger with him is that he
comes out with some comments that are
really valid and good ideas. However,
this is not one of them.
>> To be honest, he is saying things that
make the public react. Again, I think
politicians say what we want to hear and
he is definitely doing that.
>> Meanwhile, number 10 has hit back saying
Farage's proposals risk undermining
international agreements, including the
Good Friday Agreement, and that they're
pressing ahead with their own plan, the
one-in-one pilot scheme with France. The
Conservatives, meanwhile, have accused
Mr. Farage of rehashing their previous
ideas. But for people here in Dover this
morning, as the crossings continue and
political pressure rises, this plan
seems quite divisive. Welcome by some
with others believing it's taking
matters too far or have doubts that it
simply won't work. Nick
>> Emma call reporting from Dover 8 after
7. Let's get straight into the
conversation of this. By the way, I'm
going to take you to a country in Europe
that actually has handled this far
better, arguably is probably one of the
best countries actually in dealing with
that issue. That's to come. We go
elsewhere in Europe. Let's come back to
the UK and bring to the conversation
reform UK MP and deputy leader of the
party Richard Ty. Good to have you on,
Mr. Ty. As I said earlier, yours is not
the first party to try and tackle that,
but yours is certainly most ambitious.
And I wonder if I can ask you about the
costs. Uh it's your briefing document
says it will cost10 billion. The center
for migration control such a plan would
cost 47.5 billion. And when asked why,
Nigel Faraj's response was Zia Zia
Yousef, your colleague, is really good
at maths. Are you really asking my
listeners simply to buy that, Mr. Ty?
Good morning.
>> No, good morning. What I'm asking your
listeners to believe is that actually uh
we've been round the block. We've got a
track record of success in business and
we're now negotiating on behalf of
taxpayers and we will secure much better
value than has ever been achieved
before. and uh Zia's calculations are
correct and will actually mean that over
the lifetime of a uh parliamentary term
tens of billions of pounds can be saved
because we will remove this huge cost
currently 7 billion and rising of the
asylum seekers the illegal migrants and
it's all part of our plans to uh deter
people and to detain and deport people
and to do that we need to leave the
European Convention on Human Rights. We
need to scrap the Human Rights Act, and
we need to suspend for a 5-year period
with a sunset clause international
treaties such as the 80-year-old UN
Convention on uh the UN 1951 Convention.
>> Mr. Ty, how comfortable would you be
with a British government giving money
to countries such as Iran, Sudan, or the
terrorists of the Taliban?
>> Sometimes in life, you have to do
business with people that you may not
like. If we want a ceasefire in Gaza,
you've got to do a deal with Hamas. If
you want a ceasefire in Ukraine, you've
got to do a deal with Putin. These are
not nice people. But leadership is about
taking difficult decisions. And I repeat
the point. Uh we the role of the British
government is to protect our
sovereignty, our borders, and to ensure
the safety of our women and girls. And
that's why people are so angry about
this, and that's why we're leading in
the polls. It is reported that to for
each person currently deported, it takes
four security guards, four whatever you
want to call them per person. So where
are you going to get the additional
staff from?
>> Uh we will engage the appropriate staff.
We will detain and
>> this is all priced in is it Mr. Tyson to
this 10 billion pound Z is good at maths
plan.
>> It is and we're also good at organizing
things. We're also good at getting
things done. Nobody thought when we uh
started out just before the general
election that we'd secure any MPs. No
one thought we'd now be trailing uh
trading as the leading party in every
national poll. So, we continue to exceed
expectations that everybody sets for us.
Nobody thought we'd win 10 councils. We
did. We're running them. We're saving
tens if not hundreds of millions of
pounds already. So, yeah, we've got a
track record of success. And what we're
saying to the British people is uh give
us a clear mandate at the general
election next time around and we will
sort this out.
>> And lastly, you'll be aware, Mr. T,
you're a bright man exiting the ECR.
What does that mean for Northern
Ireland?
>> What it means for Northern Ireland,
which has the Good Friday Agreement from
1998. Let's be really clear about this.
That says that uh Northern Ireland
legislation ultimately can be subject to
the ECR. It does not say that the United
Kingdom must remain in the ECR and
discussions I've had with barristers,
the UK can leave the ECR
uh whilst still complying with the Good
Friday.
>> It beract it would be a protracted
business though, Mr. Ty, you must accept
that it's not going to happen overnight.
>> Nothing's perfect. No one's saying it's
easy. But the reality is that we have
got a emergency in this crisis. We've
had 50,000 illegal migrants have crossed
the channel since Labour were elected to
power. And that's about 40 to 50% higher
than a year previously. If we don't do
something, if we don't set a course of
serious radical change, then uh this
problem is going to get worse and the
British people will not put up with it.
>> Well, I hear you. But you're happy to
send women back to Sudan where rape is
used as a tactic of war. You'd be
comfortable with that. And regrettably,
some of these uh illegal migrants who
have come to this country have raped
British women and British girls. And the
role of a British government is to
defend the British people. Sometimes you
have to do business with people you may
not like. We cannot control despotic
regimes around the world. What we can do
is protect our own people and that's
what a Nigel Farage le government
promises to do.
>> Grateful for your time, Richard Ty, your
deputy leader of Reform UK, your MP for
Boston and SK nest. 13 minutes after 7.
Let's go around around the rest of
Europe. Now, Italy is having enormous
problems. Migrant arrivals are up 9% to
more than 36,000. France is wrestling
with the same issues and in Spain. But
one country seems to stand out as having
identified this problem quite early on
and taken some fairly drastic action.
And I speak of Denmark. So, it's a
pleasure to bring into the conversation
Andes Vist Vistessen who's a Danish MP
member of the European Parliament and
joins me now. I hope I got your last
name right. Apologies if I didn't, sir.
Uh can you explain when Denmark
identified the issue and what action was
taken? Good morning.
>> Good morning. Um my party, the Danish
People's Party was founded 30 years ago
uh on this platform being critical
towards illegal migration and also
skeptical towards the European Union.
And after we enter into the national
parliament in 1998, we had a national
election in 2001. And that is what we in
Denmark today call the system change
when it comes to migration. So basically
since 2001 uh governments both to the
left and to the right have pledged to
have a strict migration policy basically
with the target to have a stricter law
than our neighboring countries making it
less attractive for an illegal migrant
to be in Denmark l for instance let's
say Norway Sweden or Germany in our
case.
>> Yes in indeed it is said that yours is
the the toughest or the strictest
regulations within the European Union.
What happens then to arrivals in your
country? What is the process?
>> Basically um at the moment the process
is that if you come illegally with an
asylum claim, it is treated normally
within 3 months times. Then you have an
appeal. Uh that takes also average 3
months times. So within half a year you
have a decision. uh most people will
have their claim rejected because they
don't fill the requirements for being
refugees under the conventions and then
they will be uh deported uh for up to
90% of the cases. Some people we cannot
uh because of the European human rights
convention or because of other
international obligations or because the
host country can't receive them. But
Denmark have gone very far to make
agreements with as many third countries
to take back their um migrants when they
have rejected their asylum claim. Uh
it's not um the system that we would
prefer. We would prefer the Australian
model, but uh it is certainly better
than most of EU countries or European
countries indeed.
>> Can you give my listeners an idea how
many people we might be talking about
each year who try to gain access to your
country? Mr. Of
course, we had a spike when we had the
so-called refugee crisis of Syrian
people um six or seven years ago, but in
average today uh in Denmark, we will
talk about um around 10,000 illegal
arrivals a year. Most of them will be
rejected. I think the current stats are
um beneath 5,000 people who 5,000 people
who will get their asylum claim accepted
in Denmark. And lastly, Denmark would
send people back to Afghanistan or Sudan
or Iran.
>> We have had agreements on Afghanistan.
Right now, we are not allowed to to uh
to return uh there because of we are
also member of European Human Rights
Convention and there is a court decision
to uh to uphold uh to stop sending back
there. But there have been uh regions in
Afghanistan where we have had agreements
to forcefully resend asylum seekers. So
yes, in principle, as soon as as long as
we can live up to our international
framework, which the majority of Danish
parties still believe we should be part
of, um, not my own, but but that's
another case, we will send back and we
are sending back to to countries where,
for instance, the European Union in
general do not send back, um, illegal
migration.
>> Brilliant. I've enjoyed our time this
morning. Thank you very much for your
time. Anders Visten is a Danish MEP
member of the European Parliament. Uh,
reactions coming in on that
unsurprisingly. Popular or populist?
There is quite a distinction between way
these