Bardella travelled to London on Tuesday for talks with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. People close to the meeting described it as a discussion between two politicians preparing for potential power at the same time in their respective countries. Bardella, who is expected to reach the second round of France’s 2025 presidential election, is currently polling between 35 and 37 percent.
Speaking to The Telegraph after the meeting, Bardella said he would back joint patrols with the UK and support British Border Force “pushbacks” in the Channel. France has repeatedly rejected British requests to return boats heading for UK shores, a major point of friction between the two governments for years.
He argued that France cannot condemn the practice of EU-funded NGOs getting vessels off the Tunisian or Libyan coasts and then refuse to let Britain use similar tools. “I’m against this, so I have to be consistent with my principles. I can’t defend the notion of pushbacks and then refuse to allow Great Britain to do the same,” he said.
Farage reportedly told Bardella over lunch that a Reform government would order the Royal Navy to turn back small boats, a long-standing plank of the party’s platform. Bardella later called Farage a “pioneer” of British independence from the EU and said the two men agreed their parties had to prepare for governing.
The National Rally leader also dismissed Labour’s proposed one-in-one-out immigration scheme as a “smokescreen.” He predicted that Farage “will be the next Prime Minister” and said an alliance between their movements could help “restore Europe’s borders.”
If elected, Bardella said he plans to overhaul France’s immigration system by processing asylum applications in consulates abroad, carrying out “systematic expulsion of foreign offenders and criminals,” and giving French citizens priority access to social housing and welfare.
He said those policies would make France “the least attractive country for mass immigration in Europe” and sharply reduce departures from Calais to the UK. “If I am head of the French Government tomorrow, France will no longer be a country of mass immigration,” Bardella told the Political Thinking podcast.
Following their talks, Farage posted on social media that he told Bardella the future of Anglo-French relations depends on the UK being allowed to conduct pushbacks into French waters. “It is encouraging to see that this position is now reflected in his policy,” Farage wrote.
