Nigel Farage told me he will stop the boats. Here's why it might not be that simple

His most eye-catching claim is that he will stop the small boat crossings within three months of entering Number 10.

Mr Farage told me he had struck an informal deal with French politician Jordan Bardella – president of the right-wing National Rally since 2022 – who he said was "odds on favourite to be the next premier in France", over lunch.

Frustrated by the lack of results from the hundreds of millions of pounds handed to Paris to stop the crossings, Mr Farage said he gave Bardella an ultimatum.

He added: "As pudding approached, I said, 'well, I am very sorry, Jordan, but we've given you 800 million quid already, and this is before the next 660 million quid that's been promised. I'm really sorry.

"Unless you stop this, I'm going to get the Royal Marines to tow boats back to France'.

"And it all went very quiet for a bit. Within an hour. He said, 'I accept that. I get that'."

Is this enough? There are a lot of "ifs" in Farage's small boats plan. What if Bardella does not become French President?

What if the Royal Marines do not want to tow back small boats (and so risk the lives of migrants)? What if the courts stop him?

Part of Mr Farage's appeal is that presently he can wave these concerns away and appeal to an electorate sick and tired of seeing successive Tory and Labour governments stop the boats.

However, as we get nearer to the general election, voters will demand more detail from Mr Farage on his small boats plan and so many other areas, including how he will reform the NHS.

Mr Farage needs time to refine his plans, and next week's local elections will – if polls are to be believed – offer another reason why it really is time to take the rise of Reform very seriously indeed.

The Reform UK leader, himself tanned and lean from weeks of campaigning, seems to be enjoying himself, promising to do things differently, including changing Prime Minister’s Questions to twice a week if he wins the race for No10.

He has been absent from the House of Commons this week, including on key votes on the Peter Mandelson scandal and the treatment of Northern Ireland veterans.

However, his reasoning is that he has been taking the fight to Labour by campaigning in communities up and down the country, not sitting in Parliament where he rarely gets a chance to make a contribution.

Things became slightly more emotive in our interview when pressed on why he had decided to accept millions of pounds from former Conservative Party donor Christopher Harborne, including a £5million "personal gift" before he stepped up to lead Reform in 2024.

The donation "might just keep me alive", he said, adding: "I was given the money unconditionally as a gift, but I will use it to make sure that I and my family are safe, certainly for the rest of my life."

Mr Farage, 62, is increasingly recognising that time for him is short. For the first time, he signalled to me that the next general election in 2029 might not be the end of his time in frontline politics, as many of us had thought. "I've been told that for years," he said.

"There's no denying that the years are going by. But then, if I was a French or American politician - [look at] Trump and Biden, and Chirac and many, others..."(Jacques Chirac was 62 years old when he first became French President in 1995 and was 74 when he completed his second term in 2007.

Joe Biden was 82 years old when he stood down as President in late 2024. Donald Trump is presently 79 years old.)

Mr Farage clearly now thinks he can go on and on and on and quite what the younger MPs in his team, some of whom will be eyeing the leadership position, make of this is yet to be seen.

For now, Mr Farage can't think beyond the local elections on Thursday. "All I'm thinking about after eight weeks on the road, I'm thinking about Thursday, May 7," he said.

"Next Thursday for us is like Becher's Brook. If we clear Becher's Brook and we land unharmed, we've got a very good path to the next election."