'We live in a digitised age': Nigel Farage says post-Brexit border checks will be 'just as quick and easy' as before
4 June 2024, 10:20
Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Nigel Farage | 04/06/24
Nigel Farage has insisted that post-Brexit border checks will be "just as quick and easy" as before once "everything is organised".
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Speaking on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, the new Reform leader said issues with border checks were not due to Brexit but instead a result of the government's failure to deliver.
When asked about long delays at British ports, Mr Farage said: "We live in a digitised age. Once we’ve got everything organised it should be just as quick and easy as it was before.
“But the great betrayal is over immigration. I now think Boris Johnson never intended to reduce immigration. That is not a failure of Brexit - Brexit gives us total control - it’s a failure of this government.”
Mr Farage said the main focus to deal with the "population crisis" should be to stop the "mass inflow of unskilled workers".
Nigel Farage says Brexit will be renegotiated next year, as he prepares to contest the election
He highlighted the advantages that have come from Brexit, saying: "We’ve gone from being the world's seventh biggest exporter to the world's fourth biggest exporter and we’ve signed trade deals all over the world.
"That one part of it is actually going very well and British business is becoming more global and a bit less European – that’s a good thing."
However, he said Brexit negotiations as a whole were a "complete failure".
Addressing issues with Northern Ireland, Mr Farage said: "We cannot have a border in the Irish Sea.
"We cannot have one part of the UK cut off from the other. In 2025 the British government will renegotiate the Brexit deal, that has to be looked at all over again.
“Even the Republic of Ireland who are worried about people crossing the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic, even they are talking about some form of check."
Mr Farage, who will run as an MP in the Essex seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, previously said that a Reform government would "freeze non-essential migration".
He said this would "reverse long-standing wage depression and save Britain’s public services from the burden of unlimited demand".
Both the Conservatives and Labour have also vowed to bring down migration.
Rishi Sunak has said that MPs will set a cap on the number of migrants entering the UK each year if voters keep the Conservatives in power.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer's plans include passing laws to ban law-breaking employers from hiring foreign workers and to train more Britons.
Net migration stood at 685,000 in the year to December 2023. The same figure for the previous year was a record 764,000.
