A plan put forward by Britain’s right-wing Reform UK party to deploy the navy to intercept and return asylum seekers arriving by boat has triggered a dispute with France. Responding to France, Reform said: “We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether [President] Emmanuel Macron likes it or not.” Former Navy Commander Tom Sharpe has voiced similar concerns over Reform’s pledge, describing it as “sketchy in theory, dangerous in practice”. Before exiting the European Union in 2020, the UK had been able to return asylum seekers to the country of first entry under the Dublin Convention, which established the rule of first entry to avoid multiple asylum claims. “So it is a bit ironic that (Reform UK, then known as the Brexit Party) which campaigned at the time to ‘gain back control’ is now offering solution to a post-Brexit migration situation it contributed to create.”