Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe has questioned whether Nigel Farage’s plan to use the Royal Navy to turn around small boat crossings is workable – and said the French were unlikely to ever agree to it.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “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.
“We don’t have the ships.”
Mr Sharpe added using warships might be a waste of resources, as 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.
