Reform UK is not a normal political party and shouldn’t be treated as such

Martin Shipton

It’s a sign of the debased era in which we live that a significant number of our fellow citizens are persuaded by charlatans who offer slogans instead of practical policies.

The slogans may appear superficially appealing to some, but translating them into reality would lead us in the direction of dystopia. It’s important to call this out.

This week Reform UK offered a repackaged version of its proposal to end the small boats “crisis” by deploying the Royal Navy. Apart from other considerations, it seemed an inopportune moment to make such an announcement, with small boat crossings down 45% year-on-year.

For me, the implications of what Reform has proposed provides compelling evidence of why the party should never hold power in Wales or the UK.

Nigel Farage claimed that if it wins the next general election – due to be held at the latest by August 15 2029 – a Reform government would launch the “largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two” to prevent small boat crossings.

The plan would see the Royal Navy sent to the Channel to intercept all dinghies carrying asylum seekers.

Under what he dubbed “Operation Fortress”, migrants would be detained and given food and water before being returned “under escort” on naval vessels to France or Belgium.

The gullible will doubtless swallow the proposal whole. But those who engage in critical thinking will soon understand that implementing such a plan would in practical terms have all manner of drawbacks, both logistical and legal.

Reform suggests that navy offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), instead of the Border Force’s fleet of five cutters and six patrol ships, would “close on and shadow” dinghies in the Channel.

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.

Anyone in charge of a ship has a duty to “render assistance” to any person in danger of being lost at sea, and to proceed “with all possible speed” to those in distress. This is made clear in Article 98 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides the foundation of maritime law.

Reform proposes that Royal Marines on inflatables would approach what are often packed dinghies to pick up those onboard. Given that would-be refugees and migrants are likely to fear arrest, they may not be compliant.

John Foreman, a former navy captain, told the Guardian: “Mariners are obliged to rescue people at sea in distress and to not create conditions for putting them in distress.”

According to Farage, the French government would be expected to accept the returned asylum seekers. If the French refused, Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the marines would return them anyway to the French coast.

‘Illegal act’

Colin Yeo, a leading immigration barrister, told the Guardian it should be “utterly obvious” that such a move would be a violation of French sovereignty and an illegal act of international aggression. He said: “No 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 ‘the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state’.”

This would open up the possibility of armed conflict with France. As Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, has said: “If 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.”

What Reform is proposing is not serious policy-making. It is the sort of nonsense that would be spouted by a pea-brained right-wing loudmouth in a pub after a few pints – in other words, the kind of demographic Farage is consciously seeking to appeal to.

But it could easily lead to violent clashes with our nearest neighbour on the continent of Europe. This may sound like a feasible option to fans of Farage who have worked themselves up into a closing time rage, but sooner or later reality will kick in.

Forced removal

Other ideas emanating from the far right are just as mad and likely to lead to serious disorder: the forced removal from their homes and communities of people from other countries who thought they had indefinite leave to remain in the UK; the eviction of non-UK citizens from social housing in which they thought they had a secure tenancy.

Such proposals are reminiscent of Nazi rule in Germany in the 1930s – an ideology that Farage subscribed to as a teenager, if the testimony of large numbers of his school contemporaries is to be believed.

Racism, as Farage discovered during the Brexit referendum campaign, is a potent campaign weapon. It can divert people into overlooking the true inequalities that exist in society and turn them into bigoted monsters. In parts of Wales where there are barely any “migrants” with settled status or not, people can be whipped up by Farage and his ilk into believing their communities are being “swamped” by incomers from overseas.

Racism

Politics has changed, as has the discourse that flows from it. Never has racism been on display in Wales and Britain with such electoral success.

In the 1930s Oswald Mosley, who began as a Labour MP, was unable to gain traction for his British Union of Fascists in any electoral sense. After the war, he came to be seen as a vaguely comical figure, associating with off-the-rails aristocrats in what became something of a pantomime.

As a result of this, it seems to me that our institutions have yet to come to terms with the threat posed by Farage and Reform. They have been treated as a normal political party by many news outlets, who turn a blind eye to the many factors that demonstrate they are not a normal political party at all.

A think tank that has prided itself on advancing the cause of Wales since it was set up has offered a platform to one of Reform’s elected politicians, who has, in a delusional way, happily boasted about its supposed success at the Senedd.

Reform UK is a personality cult posing as a political party. It wants to undermine Welsh democracy with its toxic divisiveness and takes pride in shunning democracy in its own internal structures. It mustn’t be allowed to succeed.

All power to those journalists who consistently expose Reform for what it is: a stain on our public sphere.

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