BORIS Johnson has defended the “Boriswave” of surging net migration on his watch – insisting he was “proud” of his record.
The ex-Tory PM came out swinging following a barrage of criticism over the hundreds of thousands of arrivals during his tenure.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Harry Cole Saves the West Credit: Ray Collins
Denying it was a betrayal of Brexit voters, he hit back: “What they voted for was full legal control, and that’s what they got”.
Nigel Farage has branded the post-Covid influx “the Boriswave” after net migration peaked at 906,000 in 2023 and 745,000 in 2022.
Watch Harry Cole’s interview with Boris Johnson on his YouTube channel here…
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has also admitted her party failed to control the borders properly when in government.
But Mr Johnson told Harry Cole Saves The West: “I’m very very proud of what we did”.
He said Britain outside the EU now controls the ability to decide on who comes into the country.
He said: “If we want zero nurses, if we want nobody to come in for social care, we can. That’s our ability. Now we have full legal control.”
Mr Johnson said it was incumbent on his critics to say who they remove from the country in order to get the numbers down.
He said: “Who are you going to kick out the Ukrainians. You want to kick out the Hong Kong Chinese… you want to kick out the nurses?”
However foreigners coming on work and study visas made up the vast majority of arrivals during his time.
Mr Johnson was one of successive PMs who vowed to slash immigration only to oversee a rise in numbers.
Migration dramatically dipped during Covid as countries locked down their borders, but spiked as lockdown was lifted as workers were imported to plug job gaps.
Mr Johnson insisted the real scandal was Labour’s failure to tackle illegal migration – urging them to resurrect his Rwanda plan and quit the ECHR.
He said it was time for the government to “swallow its pride” and send asylum seekers to the African country as a deterrent.
Mr Johnson introduced the £120 million Rwanda scheme when he led the country back in 2022 saying it would stop vile smugglers and their business model.
In an exclusive interview, he said: “I think the government today should swallow its pride and get Rwanda done.”
He added: “What we what we have at the moment is a failure to control illegal immigration well.
“And that is, in fact, but actually, thanks to to Brexit, we can do that because if you look at, if you look at the cross channel, the people coming across in the dinghy, in the boats, that’s the thing that really drives the public nuts, and drives me nuts.
“We have a solution to that, and it’s the Rwanda solution, and it’s and it’s painful, Harry, it’s painful to see people now copying our idea, yeah, Americans, Italians.
“And what the this appalling Labour government should be doing is, instead of going off to Albania and being humiliated by Edi Rama, I was there, you know, asking, begging, Edi Rama, begging the Albanians for a Rwanda solution.
“We should do the Rwanda scheme. That is the way to fix illegal that’s the way to fix the illegal cross channel migration.”
A spokesman for Reform UK said: “The Boriswave was the biggest betrayal in modern political history.
“No wonder he wants to attack us after we exposed his terrible record in office.
“Reform UK will clean up Boris Johnson’s mess.”
The spokesman added: “He is in denial about his own record and desperately out of touch.”
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and The Sun’s Editor-at-Large Harry ColeCredit: Ray Collins Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
