Nigel Farage Threatens Return to Politics if BOJO Can’t Solve ‘Out of Control’ Migrant Crisis
Brexit leader Nigel Farage has threatened to return to frontline politics if Prime Minister Boris Johnson fails to tackle the illegal boat migrant crisis.
Earlier this year, Nigel Farage stepped aside from front-line politics after the United Kingdom successfully left the European Union. Mr Farage then took up a role as a prime time news anchor on the upstart, self-proclaimed ‘anti-woke’ GB News channel.
Yet on Monday, the former leader of the Brexit Party (now Reform UK) warned that the inability of Boris Johnson’s government to stop illegal immigration — a key issue of the Brexit campaign — may force him to reprise his role as the de facto opposition leader, a position he effectively held for years with the left-wing Labour Party engaged in a long-term struggle to find political relevance.
“Over the last few weeks, I have been approached by several high-ranking donors asking me if I am considering getting back into the political arena,” Farage wrote in The Telegraph.
“My gut instinct is not to do so, but I will have to give it some serious thought,” he cautioned.
Explaining his rationale for a possible return, Farage declared that the migrant crisis in the English Channel is “out of control” and Prime Minister Boris Johnson “doesn’t seem to care”.
“Johnson is ultimately responsible for guarding his people,” Farage continued, adding: “This is the sacred duty of any prime minister. It should override all others. Yet the present occupant of 10 Downing Street seems to have abandoned his post.”
Farage cited the Liverpool bomber as a recent example of the inability of the Johnson administration to keep UK citizens safe.
“He was yet another failed asylum seeker. He used fake documents to get into Britain in 2014 and was able to run rings around officials for seven years, staying in this country and living off taxpayers.” Farage wrote.
Warning that more terror attacks may come as a result of unfettered illegal immigration, Mr Farage recounted witnessing migrants land on Saturday, saying: “There wasn’t a woman or a child in sight. Did some of them fight for Isis? The answer is that we will almost certainly never know. None of them had identity documents.”
The Brexiteer mocked the pledge from Home Secretary Priti Patel to make illegal crossings of the Channel an “infrequent phenomenon”, noting that it has in fact been deportations which have become a “rare phenomenon” as a result of Britain remaining “attached to the European Convention on Human Rights.”
It is estimated that around 25,000 illegal migrants have crossed the channel into Britain since the beginning of the year, with only five being successfully deported by the government.
Illegal immigration has once again become one of the top political issues in the country, with a recent poll finding that 55 per cent of the British public believe that the government’s approach to handling the crisis has been “too soft”. This number rises to 77 per cent for those who voted Conservative in the last British general election.
While it is unclear if Mr Farage will actually follow through on his threat to return to politics, the Brexit Party — rebranded as Reform UK after the departure from the EU — has previously caused electoral issues for the Tories.
In 2019, for example, the Farage-led Brexit Party delivered a humiliating defeat to then-Prime Minster Theresa May’s Conservatives in the European Parliament elections, winning 29 seats, the most of any party. The stunning defeat ultimately foreshadowed the political downfall of Theresa May, who was then succeeded by Boris Johnson. May was the second such scalp for Farage, who also oversaw the downfall of David Cameron at the 2016 Brexit referendum.
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