This is the “immigration election”, Nigel Farage has declared ahead of his first major campaign intervention.

The Reform honorary life president will make a speech in Dover this morning after announcing he would not stand as an MP for Richard Tice’s party but instead appear around the country to boost support for Reform.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Farage said: “This is the immigration election. I will be in Dover for a major press conference setting out how to actually stop the boats.

“I predicted four years ago there would be an invasion across the English channel. Well, 3,800 boats have come, 125,000 people.

“Rishi’s policies, the Rwanda plan, isn’t going to work because of the European Court of Human Rights. Keir Starmer saying ‘smash the gangs’ – that isn’t going to work either.”

It came after Mr Farage challenged Rishi Sunak to a live TV debate on immigration, branding the small boats crisis a “national security emergency”.

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