Tony Smith CBE

MD Fortinus Global Ltd, Global Border Security Consultant. Former DG UKBF and Senior Director UKBA. Chairman of IBMATA. Lifelong QPR fan. RTs not endorsement.

[Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews]

Home Office now saying the ‘controlled’ landing of a migrant boat that was then declared by the Home Office to be an ‘uncontrolled’ landing was in fact a ‘controlled’ landing…

[Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews]

Another ‘uncontrolled’ migrant-boat landing, just weeks after the Home Secretary ordered a review into uncontrolled landings. https://t.co/Fo1uyoLHE1

[Charles Hymas @charleshymas]

A boat carrying 21 migrants across the Channel landed on a beach near Dover after fog helped it to avoid being intercepted by Border Force vessels @ShabanaMahmood @annaturley @JoWhiteSays @CPhilpOfficial @MigObs @FortinusGlobal @migrationCtrl @MigrationWatch @DannyShawNews https://t.co/KUCD24vBnh

[Michael Knowles @Express_Knowles]

NEW: France refused to take back up to half of the migrants Britain wanted to boot out under Keir Starmer’s one-in-one-out deal, it emerged today.

The former Prime Minister insisted the deal would help end small boat crossings, when it was announced in 2025.

But France simply refused to accept many of the cross-Channel migrants that were supposed to be returned to its territory, according to a scathing watchdog report.

The scale of the failure was laid bare by John Tuckett, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.

He said Paris hid behind data protection diktats to avoid handing immigration officials the reasons for refusals - which meant the Home Office wasted time trying to return migrants that France would eventually reject.

[Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews]

Official Home Office data have classed yesterday’s arrival of 21 migrants as an ‘uncontrolled landing’ - even though the Home Office denied this yesterday.

[Tony Smith CBE @FortinusGlobal]

@DailyMail Which is why we need to leave the ECHR….

[Joy Morrissey MP @joymorrissey]

Our public institutions have been completely ideologically captured.

The Civil Service should pull this calendar without delay and work out what actually matters to the British people.

Civil Service calendar marks trans days but not Remembrance Sunday https://t.co/Z5EMp5o7xP

[Michael Knowles @Express_Knowles]

Another green and red migrant boat…

[Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews]

363 migrants in five boats were brought to Dover yesterday. Picture from French lifeboat.

[Tony Smith CBE @FortinusGlobal]

Calais, Normandy, Belgium and now Holland.

As I’ve said many times before, the smugglers won’t give up until we break their business model.

Detain and deport all undocumented arrivals from safe third countries. https://t.co/YfnO2a3KNW

[Simon Jones @SimonJonesNews]

161 migrants in three boats were brought to Dover yesterday - after four days of no crossings.

[Tony Smith CBE @FortinusGlobal]

Chairing the @border_mgmt Africa Summit in Zanzibar next week with border, immigration and law enforcement leaders from around the world. Human smuggling will not be defeated by countries working alone. Stronger international cooperation is essential to disrupt it #BorderSecurity

[Nigel Farage @Nigel_Farage]

I hope the appointment of Angus MacIntyre as Reform UK’s shadow Armed Forces minister will one day be seen as a defining moment in British politics.

For too long, Westminster has been run by a self-serving political class. We have career politicians who move straight from university debating societies to think tanks, into parliament and then directly into ministerial red boxes.

The result has been successive governments made up of individuals with absolutely no real-world experience. Nowhere has this been more damaging than in the vital realm of defence.

Over the past two decades, we have had men and women making decisions on our Armed Forces, most of whom have never so much as pulled on uniform, let alone faced the harsh realities of geopolitical conflict.

By contrast, RAF Wing Commander MacIntyre brings an exemplary 40 years of military experience to the role, serving Britain across some of the world’s most challenging operational environments, from Mogadishu to Afghanistan. He has seen first hand the damage wreaked on our proud military by years of underfunding. We are immensely proud to have him on board.

His appointment is a signal of our determination to recruit people who have spent their working lives doing the jobs they are now being asked to help shape politically.

Our policing and crime adviser, Colin Sutton, had a distinguished 40-year career in the police. Most notably, he investigated and convicted the serial killer Levi Bellfield.

Real careers, real experience.

Angus will be far from the last of his type. I intend to bring the best minds this country has to offer in health, farming, technology and business into politics and government.

The career politicians are terrified of this approach, of course. They love their cosy monopoly. They want to convince the British public that governing a country is some mystical art form known only to those who have spent decades marching through the parliamentary lobbies.

But it's common sense. If a private company were failing as catastrophically as our Government, shareholders wouldn’t tolerate the same failed boardroom hacks. They would bring in turnaround specialists immediately. That is what Reform UK will do.

The British people are crying out for competent management. That is what we will deliver.

The old parties have had their chance. They failed. Now it is time for people who know what real service looks like to step forward and help us fix broken Britain. Angus MacIntyre has answered that call. Many more will follow.

Our best days still lie ahead of us. Just as long as we have the courage to choose experience over the same failed political class.

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Time will tell but I think Westminster might get a bit of a wake up call from the appointment of Angus as Reform's armed forces spokesperson.

From my experience, ordinary people outside the SW1 village find it bizarre that the person in charge of the NHS i.e. the Health Secretary, has never worked in it. That the person in charge of schools has never been a teacher. DEFRA Secretary never been a farmer etc etc.

You can argue that domain experience and subject matter expertise isn't everything but the reality is most ordinary folk regard is as common sense and think it just plain weird how our politics operates. It also propagates this sense that politics is all just cronyism rather than esteeming real world experience.

I suspect if Angus is a decent enough media performer and doesn't make unforced errors - and all the signs at the press conference earlier were promising - he will prove v popular with the public and will be a big vindication for Farage's strategy of fishing outside the normal Westminster/Whitehall pools for talent

[David Goodhart @David_Goodhart]

Time to talk more publicly about poor communication skills of some of our foreign carers and its impact on quality of elder care, a sensitive issue but a lot of strong feeling out there. My Telegraph piece, grew out of a recent tweet on the ILR climbdown. https://t.co/4tOleZKTsX

[Kelvin MacKenzie @kelvmackenzie]

I didn’t know this. The UK gives either residency rights or asylum to two thirds of migrants that cross the Channel. These numbers came from a former French prime minister who will run to be President.
His point is as long as we are so inviting to the migrants they will continue to head our way no matter what the obstacle.
Reasonable point.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

Labour are allowing ISIS terrorists to pour across our borders.

Take Zana Abdul Rahman Rahim.

He was jailed in Italy for seven and a half years as spokesman and strategist of an ISIS-affiliated terror cell that plotted to attack and kidnap a British ambassador.

Despite being banned from the UK, he crossed from France to Dover in the back of a lorry this June.

He was only caught when police stopped his car over a broken light.

But he’s not the only one.

Rebwar Hamad broke into Britain for a second time on a small boat last September. He had already been convicted of terrorism offences in Italy and extradited there to serve his sentence.

Likewise, Mohammed Yaseen, a former member of both Al Qaeda and ISIS, crossed last December. He was part of the cell that murdered British hostage Ken Bigley, and later joined a unit that carried out mass executions.

Not one of them has been deported.

Last week Labour let 1,700 illegal migrants break into Britain in just four days.

How many terrorists were amongst them?

Only Reform will end the invasion for good.

We will detain and deport all those in Britain illegally.

We will take our country back.

[Tony Smith CBE @FortinusGlobal]

@Dominic2306 They didn’t notice? What? Of course they did. They just chose not to do anything about it until it was too late.

[Chris Philp MP @CPhilpOfficial]

Here’s our plan to fix the u-turn Shabana Mahmood announced yesterday

Only those making a real net contribution should be allowed to stay in the UK

We will remove ILR from recent arrivals given it by Labour as a result of yesterday’s u-turn who aren’t making a net contribution

Kemi explains below

[Tony Smith CBE @FortinusGlobal]

@GoodwinMJ I’m really worried about the safe and legal routes, the sponsorship criteria, and the lack of any cap on numbers. This could quickly escalate into a new Boriswave if we aren’t careful. And it still won’t stop the boats.