FARAGE OFFERS REAL REASON SMALL BOAT CROSSINGS ARE DOWN AND DISMANTLES SUNAK'S CLAIMS
Nigel Farage has suggested strong winds in recent weeks are behind a drop in small boats.
The GB News presenter rejected Rishi Sunak's claim during a visit to Dover yesterday that his plan to curb Channel crossings is "starting to work".
The Prime Minister said the numbers making the dangerous journey were down by around a fifth since last year, while in Europe they are up by almost a third.
But Mr Farage insisted the reason Channel crossings have fallen is that there have been north-easterly winds for the last three-and-a-half weeks.
The former Ukip leader also warned the fact that numbers are up in Europe should be a cause for concern as he claimed many would eventually head to the UK.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage drops huge hint over 'revolutionary' political comeback
Unelected peers on Monday night threatened to delay Rishi Sunak's plans to stop small boats in a row over the cost.
Former senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss said it was "outrageous" the House of Lords was being asked to take decisions on legislation without an economic impact assessment.
Speaking on his GB News show, Mr Farage said: "He even tried to say that we are doing better than the rest of Europe in dealing with this problem.
"What it tells you is that is the Mediterranean and this is the English Channel.
"And for the last three and a half weeks every single day we've had a north-easterly airflow coming through the straits of Dover.
"In fact I've never known a north-easterly wind at this time of year to last this long. There's only been a couple of days in the last three and a half weeks on which any boats at all would cross.
"So to compare us with the Mediterranean is crazy. And frankly, as you say, numbers crossing the Mediterranean have risen sharply.
"That should worry you even more because guess what the number one destination for many of those people is going to be? It's going to be right here."
Mr Farage also raised questions over the timing of the Prime Minister's trip to Kent on Monday.
He said: "After all, nobody knew about it til the last minute. Normally the PM going to Dover to talk about this would have been trailed to all the media outlets last week.
"No this was a very last-minute thing. Let me tell you why. Because from Sunday the weather changes completely.
"It's the end of the big anticyclone in the North Sea, it's the end of the strong north-easterly breezes.
"If the forecast is anything like right from this Sunday we will have eight to 10 days of absolutely perfectly calm weather.
"We know there are many thousands, possibly even tens of thousands, waiting to cross."
The GB News presenter also accused Mr Sunak of "spin" and "pure cynical politics".
He said: "So Rishi Sunak, who is the biggest spinner we've had as a Prime Minister since Tony Blair, cynically and deliberately chose today to go to Dover to tell you the numbers are down 20 percent.
"And what we do know is whilst the Albanians may not be coming in the same numbers, there are now young men from all over the Indian subcontinent.
"Again, people I would have thought with no right, from India in particular, to claim asylum. And yet they are now the ones making up many of the numbers.
"I think frankly this is pure cynical politics from a prime minister who may be good at spin, but frankly I don't think he's going to deliver very much on this at all."
During his visit to Dover, Mr Sunak - who has made stopping small boats one of his top five priorities - declared his plan is beginning to bear fruit.
He said: "Before I launched my plan in December, the number entering the UK illegally in small boats had more than quadrupled in two years.
"Some said this problem was insoluble, or just a fact of 21st-century life. They'd lost faith in politicians to put in the hard yards to do something about it.
"And of course, we still have a long way to go. But in the five months since I launched the plan, crossings are now down 20 percent compared to last year.
"This is the first time since this problem began that arrivals between January and May have fallen compared to the year before.
"And this progress is not replicated across the Channel. Illegal migrants entering the rest of Europe have risen by 30 percent."
Mr Sunak played down suggestions that fewer crossings were a result of the weather.
Asked whether windy conditions in the Channel was the reason behind the timing of his visit, he replied: "There are many things I can control, the weather is not one of them. I wish it was so."