Nigel Farage has warned that the ongoing conflict in Syria will lead to waves of young male migrants trying to cross the Channel to Britain.
It comes as the Syrian government is attempting to regain control from rebels and Islamist forces who have gained control of at least two cities. The rebels, led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, and also claimed to have entered the city of Hama, reigniting the conflict.
The rebel operation is the biggest advance and the largest challenge to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020.
Now, the Reform UK leader has called for Sir Keir Starmer to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which he has blamed for stopping migrant deportations.
He told The Telegraph: “We must protect ourselves from the stupidity of the EU and leave the ECHR or face yet more waves of young men coming to the UK.”
Since the start of 2014, 1.6 million Syrian asylum seekers have arrived in the European Union, peaking in 2015 and 2016, when 693,175 arrived over the course of two years.
Italian foreign minister and former European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said: “We risk a migratory collapse. If the civil war continues we risk seeing a repeat of what happened a few years ago when millions of Syrians fled the country.”
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Reeves appoints ‘covid corruption minister’
The Chancellor has appointed Tom Hayhoe as Covid corruption commissioner to claw back taxpayers’ money wasted on deals during the pandemic.
He has started a review of £8.7 billion worth of PPE bought during the pandemic that was later written off the government’s books.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves previously said she had ditched Tory plans to waive £674 million of the more than £1.2 billion of PPE contracts in dispute and that those deals will be assessed by the commissioner.
Hayhoe has chaired NHS trusts and worked in corporate strategy and consumer marketing. He became chairman of the Legal Services Board’s consumer panel in May.
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A Labour MP has claimed the Ministry of Defence has “neglected” funding protection against aerial threats – leaving the UK vulnerable to Russia and Iran.
North Durham MP Luke Akehurst said: “We need a properly integrated air and missile defence system that can defend against the whole range of aerial threats.
“This must be an urgent political, funding and industrial priority before it is too late – and our integration with new and bolstered air defence systems that our European allies have already had the foresight to invest in will be crucial.”