Nigel Farage says charities that help asylum seekers get to UK should be prosecuted

Reform leader did not say who should be targeted but party figures have been critical of small boat rescues by RNLI

Charities and volunteers who help asylum seekers get to the UK should face potential criminal prosecution, Nigel Farage has said in an interview with a rightwing US podcaster.

Speaking to Benny Johnson, a podcaster who has previously written for a series of rightwing US outlets, including Breitbart News, Farage discussed the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats, calling it “literally an invasion of people who could cause us enormous harm”.

Farage replied: “Totally, totally. The role of the NGOs, the role of those that are sponsored by taxpayers’ money, because they’re nice, they’re good, they’re kind. They have actually aided and abetted criminality in absolutely every way.

Farage has previously described the RNLI, which rescues some asylum seekers, a small proportion of its lifesaving work, as a “migrant taxi service”, while other Reform figures have criticised the the charity, including sharing footage of far-right protestors abusing RNLI crews bringing people ashore.

Farage said: “We are importing into our countries … people who will do us enormous harm, who will change, disrupt our lives in every way, in fact make our way of life potentially unrecognisable.”

He told Johnson: “If we don’t, this show of yours will be illegal in five or 10 years time. Literally, you’ll be banned for hate speech.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Farage speculated that five UK nationals arrested near RAF Fairford late last month before being bailed had been undertaking “a dummy run for a proper terrorist attack on UK forces”.

Farage has a habit of sometimes making his message more robust for rightwing US audiences.

Farage was criticised by some Jewish groups for using these and other US interviews to discuss tropes and conspiracy theories associated with the far right and antisemitism.

Farage denies Reform would let troops shoot small boats after Jenrick’s ‘lethal force’ claim19h ago

Two people die trying to cross Channel as anti-migrant protesters clash with police in Gosport