France will have to take migrants if they are picked up by Navy, says Zia Yusuf

He said the plan was in part inspired by what he saw in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, where around 60,000 migrants last week breached the border with Morocco.

Mr Yusuf, who has visited the territory, said the military in Ceuta “were carrying basically weapons of war on them”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I saw soldiers using pepper spray into interacting directly with migrants that were acting in a disorderly fashion.

“And in using the military, what I saw was Spain was able to remove, effectively send back, what looked like north of 40,000 illegal migrants in the space of a day.”

Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe cast doubt over whether Reform’s proposal, which it will unveil in full later on Monday, was workable.

“When you start looking at what ships we have, which is basically none – I mean, he’s talking about the largest maritime operation in the Channel since World War Two, a very evocative image, but that’s not the reality,” he said, also speaking on the Today programme.

“We don’t have the ships.”

Mr Sharpe added using warships might be a waste of resources, if their anti-air and anti-submarine capabilities were better suited to other scenarios.

He said the country already has the Border Force set up to intercept migrants trying to reach Great Britain.

And he warned Paris could end up refusing to accept migrants being ferried to French shores by the Royal Navy.

Mr Sharpe said French authorities already grant asylum to migrants in its borders and added: “It needs their total approval which which I don’t think we’ll get.

“And frankly, you know, brutally, why why would we?”

Responding, Mr Yusuf said his party had considered a scenario where French authorities refused to consent to the plan, saying London and Paris would need to have “something of an argument”.

He added that given migrants have died crossing the English Channel, the boats would be “full of innocent civilians who are being rescued as part of a humanitarian mission”.

It would be a “crime against humanity” not to let them disembark, Mr Yusuf said.

“The idea that President (Emmanuel) Macron would order the gendarmerie, the coastguard, or anybody else under his control to commit a crime against humanity, which is what that would be, I do not think that that is a serious hypothetical.”

Mr Yusuf said Reform UK, if the party is elected into Government, would use Bay Class landing ships, which are used to transport troops and vehicles, to execute its proposal.

Smaller offshore River patrol vessels “will have Royal Marines on board that will be used to go right up alongside these illegal migrant dinghies, take them on board and escort them back to France”, he said.

On Sunday, Mr Yusuf said: “Britain is being invaded.

“Tory and Labour governments responded with a free ferry service and free hotels.

“Reform UK will respond by launching the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two.”

Figures show more than 2,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister last month.

The numbers from the Home Office show 326 migrants arrived on Saturday in four boats, bringing the number up to 2,057 since Sir Keir Starmer left office on July 20.

Cabinet minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, on Monday defended the Government’s effort to curb migration across the English Channel.

“We’ve seen a doubling of enforcement officers to make sure that people aren’t getting on those boats to begin with, and if they are and they need to be returned, they’re returned,” she told Sky News.

“But secondly, it is about making sure that we are getting to grips with the criminal gangs that are at the heart of this – we’ve seen an increase in arrests of about 74%.

“And then the third plank is making sure that there are safe and legal routes.

“We think that approach is working – 50% down.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Mr Burnham “does not seem to have the the strength to adopt a plan” to tackle migration.

“All that is protecting our country’s borders is rough seas in the English Channel and as soon as we get any calm weather we have huge numbers,” the Conservative frontbencher said.