Farage Calls UK Official ‘Moron’ Following Illegal Immigration Claim

A cursory glance at European statistics proves that the United States is not alone in dealing with the ramifications of unprotected borders, with nations including the United Kingdom are seeing a push among many elected officials and ordinary citizens for increased immigration law enforcement.

This has resulted in leaders across the ideological spectrum shifting their language to highlight efforts ostensibly aimed at reducing the number of undocumented migrants crossing into the country.

Nigel Farage, who gained international prominence for his support of the “Brexit” movement that resulted in England’s withdrawal from the European Union, recently criticized such rhetoric from U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly.

In a recent statement, Cleverly claimed that increased patrols were responsible for a recent drop in the number of migrants crossing the English Channel into the U.K.

“There were no small boat arrivals over Christmas for the first time since they started in 2018,” he wrote this week. “Last night, our Border Force officers and their French partners worked together to stop a boat launching on the beaches. They’ve played a crucial role in cutting crossings by 35%.”

In reality, Farage argued, the arrival of a fierce winter storm was clearly the biggest factor in reducing the number of boats making the journey in recent days. 

His argument was echoed by many other critics, including the author of a community note in response to Cleverly’s original post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The addendum cited the U.K. government itself, which “confirms there are seasonal effects on boat crossings due to adverse weather.”

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made preventing such forms of illegal immigration a central component of his platform, promising in January to “pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally you are detained and swiftly removed.”

Nearly a year later, however, he had acknowledged that there is no clear indication when his government will reach that goal. 

Touting the “considerable progress” he claims has been made thus far in 2023, he added: “There isn’t a firm date on this because I’ve always been clear from the beginning. We will keep going until we [stop the boats]. This isn’t one of these things when there’s a price date [or] estimate on it.”