Rishi Sunak has ordered to stop murderers and rapists from reaching UK shores by physically stopping boats in the English Channel.
Ben Habib, deputy leader of Reform UK, was speaking days after telling TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer he would leave people to drown if they jumped out of flimsy dinghies in the narrow waterway.
In a combative defence of his position outlined in a comment piece for Express.co.uk, Mr Habib dismissed Mr Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan – telling him instead to focus on preventing people from arriving on UK shores illegally in the first place.
He wrote: “The only policy that will work to stop the boats is to stop the boats – physically – in the Channel.
“Any other approach guarantees the boats will keep coming; life will be lost in the Channel; and the abhorrent people traffickers will be rewarded.”
Paying the French Government to stop the boats was “not just a mugs game but deeply dangerous”, former Brexit Party MEP Mr Habib warned.
He explained: “They have twigged that the more people they send our way, the more we are prepared to pay.
“So they will keep sending people in dinghies – more often than not escorted by the French navy.”
With Britain’s legal system likely to be bogged down by appeals, Mr Sunak’s legislation – passed earlier this month – would only result in “a handful ever being deported”, Mr Habib claimed.
He said: “The Rwandan deal gives the false impression the government has a plan. It does not. Even if planes take-off there will be no deterrent. The chances of being deported are low to non-existent. Illegal migrants will run that risk.
“And so the boats keep coming. And as long as they keep coming there is a guarantee of continued drowning and death in the Channel.”
Any suggestion that in response to being told to turn around, illegal migrants would simply scupper their boats was ”absurd”, Mr Habib continued, stressing: “They are not suicidal. And, even if they took the extreme action of sinking their own boats, they must not be allowed to enter the UK.
“They should be provided with a new boat, put in it (handcuffed if necessary) and returned to France. We must not give into the blackmail of self-harm.
“To do so would mean the boats keep coming. And if the boats keep coming, there will be continued death in the Channel.”
There was “ample evidence” a policy of physically stopping the boats worked, with Belgium’s policy of doing so resulting in a 92 percent drop in the number of launches, Mr Habib pointed out.
He said: “None of the above makes any account of the threat also to the life of British citizens and criminality coming in these boats.
“There is nothing civilised about the murders, rapes and acid attacks carried out by people who have entered the UK illegally. Criminal elements amongst those entering cannot be controlled because we know nothing about them.
“They cannot be policed at the point of entry because they arrive without papers.
“Unless the boats are physically stopped there will not just be ongoing death in the Channel, there will be the continued murdering and assault of innocent British citizens. This is not a prejudiced hypothesis, it is a proven fact.”
By “bending to the will of people smugglers” Britain simply “encouraged their illicit activities”, hence ensuring the continued loss of both migrant and British lives, Mr Habib argued.
He concluded: “It is essential for civilisation that borders are enforced. Allowing our borders to be assaulted is an assault on life and our civility. It is uncivilised.”
