A former Royal Navy officer has dismissed Reform UK’s plan to use the military to turn back small boats crossing the Channel as “a crock of shit”.
John Foreman hit out after the French government also rejected the policy.
Reform leader Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesman, unveiled the plan – called Operation Fortress – on Monday.
It would see the Royal Navy intercept the boats and return the asylum seekers on board to where they came from in “the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two”.
Farage said the plan did not break international law because they would be carrying out a “humanitarian” mission.
But in a statement, the French interior ministry said: “This would constitute a violation of French sovereignty, as well as a violation of the law of the sea and international law.”
A Reform UK spokesman said: “We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether Emmanuel Macron likes it or not.
“Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law.”
In response, Foreman said on X: “What, and I use the phrase carefully, a crock of shit their plan is.”
As well as commanding two warships during his time in the Navy, Foreman is also a former UK Defence Attaché to both the Russian Federation and in in Kyiv.
He has also had military and diplomatic appointments in the US, with Nato, and the EU.
His criticism echoes comments by former Navy commander Tom Sharpe.
He told the BBC: “A billion pound warship that’s configured for anti-air warfare or anti-submarine warfare, which are both threats to the UK, is not best used ferrying people around,” he said. “You’re better off using an actual ferry.”