Ben Habib spoke to GB News about the comments
Reform UK joint deputy leader Ben Habib has defended Nigel Farage’s controversial comments about Russia and Vladimir Putin.
He also said that migrants crossing the Channel illegally in small boats could be put in handcuffs and returned to France.
Speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News, he said: “What Nigel was doing was pointing out some basic facts. We tend to see Ukraine particularly and many foreign interventions in black and white terms and a lot of this is nuanced.
“In 2013, the EU was offering association membership to the Ukraine, it was offering them 10 billion euros worth of funding if they came and joined.
“In the end, Yanukovych actually declined the EU's advances and he decided to sign a deal with Russia. And then there was the rioting on the streets, Yanukovych was deposed and you've got an interim leader and all of a sudden Crimea was invaded.
“The EU with Russia has been all over the place. So it flirted with Ukraine…if the EU had genuinely been worried about Russian invasion, why was Germany rushing it, making itself dependent on Russian oil and gas?
“And you know, when it comes to the morality of this war, Russia or Germany went on pumping billions of euros, about 50 billion euros, into Russian coffers after they've invaded Ukraine.
“What's refreshing about Reform is that we speak our minds and we speak it without fear and without favour, and we need that in politics. And what Nigel was making was the connection between the EU's behaviour and where we are right now.”
On immigration, he was asked if Reform’s policy meant that they would prefer that people die trying to cross the Channel in small boats.
Habib said: “Let me be utterly clear. I'm not advocating anyone to drown, no one needs to drown, you could rescue them.
“And in this other hypothetical discussion we are now having with you, you could handcuff them, put them in a boat and take them back to France.
“I’ll tell you what guarantees migrants drowning and that is not stopping the boats coming across the channel in the first place.
“The government policy at the moment, effectively is to spend £50,000 per head, per illegal migrant per annum in this country…
“Unless you stop that movement of people, and the physical stopping of them would do it and it works, you will go on encouraging people to make that journey and the default position will remain that we will have continued deaths in the channel.
“Moreover, there will be criminal and possibly terroristic elements that we will import from France into the United Kingdom, who will then go on to attack civil society in our country.
“This is a deeply dangerous policy that the government is not getting a grip of.”
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