Nigel Farage says it is a "political impossibility" to mass deport illegal migrants from Britain, offering a "dead simple" alternative to tackle the growing crisis.
The Clacton MP and leader of Reform UK sat down with GB News to discuss the state of the UK's asylum system, after new figures showed that 10,000 migrants have now crossed into the UK since Labour took power in July.
In an interview with Steve Edginton, Farage spoke at length about the "exploding" numbers of migrants crossing the Channel into Britain, and admitted that his "ambition" is not to mass deport them.
When asked by Steve if he supports the idea of mass deportations, Farage exclaimed: "If people come illegally, they should not be allowed to stay, simple.
Nigel Farage said the solution to tackling illegal migration is 'dead simple'
GB News
"The only way you're ever going to solve the Channel is if they know that, number one, they'll never be granted refugee status by coming via this route, and number two, that they're not going to stay. It's dead simple."
Delivering his verdict on Starmer's plans to stop the people smuggling gangs by implementing a new Border Force Command, Farage said "no matter what you do to the gangs", there will "always be someone who fills the gap".
Farage explained: "You could give these gang members life imprisonment, but more people are going to step in to the gap because of the money involved.
"Think about drugs. However big a sentence we give to drug dealers, there's always somebody else to come and fill that place."
10,000 illegal migrants have now crossed into the UK since Labour took power in July
PA
Making his feelings clear on the UK's membership with the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights], Farage stressed that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will "never" be able to tackle the migrant crisis whilst the country is still a part of it.
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Farage fumed: "We'll never do this as part of the ECHR. We'll never, ever do this. All the while, the British judiciary can lean on the Human Rights Act, which incorporated the European Convention.
"We will never, ever deal with it, and I think this is going to become one of the big, major fault lines in British politics."
Noting Starmer's support for the ECHR, Farage made clear that Reform believe the convention is "no longer fit for purpose".
Farage told GB News: "We are absolutely clear that this organisation that was set up with the best of intentions 70 years ago is no longer fit for purpose, and through activism has now moved into areas that it was never intended to do.
The Reform UK leader said it is a 'political impossibility' to deport thousands of people
GB News
"It'll be just like Brexit. There'll be a few voices saying we should consider leaving - if we can't get what we need, we should consider leaving.
"But there will be the other lot who say, no, we should stay. They'll be all over the place, and it's going to be a very similar debate to Brexit."
When pressed again by Steven on the idea to mass deport illegal migrants, Farage hit back that it is "literally impossible" to do.
He said: "For us, at the moment, it's a political impossibility. I'm not going to get dragged down the route of mass deportations or anything like that. If I say I support mass deportations, that's all anybody will talk about for the next 20 years. So it's pointless even going there.
"It's a political impossibility to deport hundreds of thousands of people. We simply can't do it."