Nigel Farage lost it at Sir Keir Starmer over the migrant Channel crisis in a fiery attack on his GB News show. The Reform UK leader hit out at the Prime Minister after he threatened a visa crackdown to help tackle the “deteriorating” situation.
Mr Farage said: “What the hell is the Prime Minister going on about? We’re talking about illegal immigration and he wants to give them visas. He just said we’ve got to look at visas which means what he’s really saying is we’ll open up legal routes to Eritrea, we’ll open up legal routes to Afghanistan. This man hasn’t got a clue, he literally hasn’t got a clue.”
Mr Farage’s comments come after the Prime Minister signalled that countries which did not do enough to tackle the small boats crisis, for example by taking back failed asylum seekers, could face repercussions in the numbers of visas issued to their citizens.
Sir Keir said: “It’s a serious challenge that requires serious responses to it.”
He added that he was looking at a “smarter use of our visas” and “whether we should tie our visas to the work that the countries we’re dealing with are doing on preventative measures and on return agreements”.
No 10 signalled it was part of a “more hard-edged approach to diplomacy and migration”.
A spokesman said: “This is at an early stage, but the principle is clear: if a country won’t co-operate on returns or prevention, they shouldn’t expect visa privileges to carry on as normal.
“No one has a right to a UK visa, and this Government is making sure the rules are enforced.”
Some 16,545 people have crossed in small boats so far in 2025 according to Home Office figures, a 45% increase on the same period in 2024 and higher than at the same point in 2022, the overall record year for crossings.
Downing Street earlier admitted that the situation in the English Channel was “deteriorating”.