While Nigel Farage promotes his new airline - Deportation Airways - Sky News reports that asylum applications in the UK have gone through the roof:

A record 111,084 people claimed asylum in the UK in the latest year to June 2025, the highest number in figures collected since 2002. Around two in five - 41,870 - of those were made by people who arrived in small boats.

So who is to blame? Why Nigel Farage and his beloved Brexit, according to the Liberal Democrat leader:

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey was more personal, suggesting Mr Farage himself was responsible for the massive rise in small boat crossings.

"The truth is, it was Farage's Brexit that caused the small boats," Sir Ed said. "Before Brexit, we could send back any illegal immigrants coming over in a small boat."

But as Sky News also points out:

Brexit ended UK participation in the so-called Dublin agreement which governs EU-wide asylum claims. It means people should be processed for asylum in the country at which they first entered the bloc.

But Britain's membership of the EU did not stop all asylum arrivals. And many EU countries where people first arrive, including Italy, do not apply the Dublin rules.

The truth is that Brexit had far less impact on illegal immigration than the refugee crises initiated by the multiple interference wars pursued largely by the USA and its NATO allies.

These wars resulted in places like Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of illegal immigation from destabilised states such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, so is it any surprise they were not keen on processing at first point of entry and wanted people to move on to Germany or the UK?

Although no-one wants to mention this.

It's just easier to blame it on Brexit.