Farage floats Royal Marines small-boat plan as French attitudes 'begin to change'

Nigel Farage has confirmed talks with senior French figures on the Channel crossings and said he would order the Royal Marines to return migrant boats to French beaches if Reform UK came to power. The Mirror reports the plan would not work; France has described it as inflammatory.

GB News reports Farage said attitudes in France are beginning to shift on the small boats question. The Daily Mail says he is open to talks with Restore Britain's Rupert Lowe on uniting the right, and that he reached out to the rival party. The Express carries Farage's three-word response to Lowe's peace offer and reports French anger at the marine interception proposal.

The house angle is machinery. Intercepting boats in another country's waters without consent is not policy - it is fantasy dressed as toughness. The French have patrol boats too, and no incentive to allow a foreign military to dump people back on their beaches. The real question is whether Paris would ever agree to take them back under a bilateral deal, and what Britain would have to offer in return. The Royal Marines line is a negotiating position aimed at a domestic audience, not a plan that survives contact with international law or French sovereignty.

Betting markets now make Kemi Badenoch favourite to be the next prime minister, according to the Express. What to watch: whether Farage and Lowe actually meet, and whether any French official confirms the talks Farage describes.