Net migration peaked under Boris Johnson at 634,000

Tories should ignore Nigel Farage to counter the rise of Reform UK, Boris Johnson has claimed.

The former Prime Minister, who saw off the Brexit Party in 2019, pointed out he kept Reform UK at “zero per cent” in the polls back in 2021.

There has long been speculation that Johnson could mount a political comeback in a bid to turn the Tory Party’s fortunes around.

However, GB News last month revealed that Reform is already preparing to mount a major campaign to prevent his return to the House of Commons.

Speaking to the Swiss magazine Weltwoche, Johnson said: “My strategy with the individuals that you mention is don’t talk about them.

“When I was running the UK, this party you mention was on zero per cent in the polls, sometimes three per cent max.

“Don’t talk about them. Talk about what you are going to offer the people.”

The Brexit Party had hit highs of 19 per cent when Johnson took over as Tory leader in July 2019, later collapsing to just two per cent by the time voters went to the polls later that year.

Boris JohnsonPA

Despite Johnson’s dismissive assessment, the former Prime Minister was speaking a year after Reform UK secured 14.4 per cent of vote and returned five MPs to the House of Commons.

Reform UK’s support has more than doubled since, with Farage edging closer to No10 while the Tories plunge further in the polls.

The 2025 Local Elections saw Reform UK all-but wipe out the Tories across much of true-blue England, winning 677 wards and taking control of 10 formerly Conservative-run councils.

A Reform UK insider dismissed Johnson’s intervention, blasting the ex-Prime Minister over the Tories’s spiralling net migration figures.

Nigel FaragePA

“Boris Johnson did unprecedented damage to this country,” the insider said.

“He is the mastermind behind the mass immigration experiment.

“Whilst he tries to save and rewrite his legacy of mass immigration and net zero, Reform is offering the country real change.”

Johnson, who loosened up restrictions around work and student visas, oversaw net migration hit a peak of 634,000 in the year to June 2022.

Boris Johnson

PA

The figure continued to soar under Rishi Sunak – teetering towards one million to hit 906,000 in the year ending June 2023.

However, net migration fell to 431,000 during Sir Keir Starmer’s first year in charge.

Johnson defended his borders record during his interview with Weltwoche, adding that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights to bring down the number of Channel crossings.

He said: “It would be useful to quit the ECHR but the main thing is to get back to our Rwanda plan: the only credible way of smashing the cross-Channel gangs. Bring back Rwanda.

Nigel FaragePA

On legal migration, the ex-Prime Minister added: All b******s.

“What we had was two things: we had Covid which meant nobody came, so immigration collapsed, and then what happened was unfortunately the Remain Establishment believed their own propaganda.

“They thought the millions of EU nationals were all leaving and they were not… They panicked when we couldn’t find people to stack the shelves and drive the trucks after Covid but the crucial thing is that we took back full legal control and can rectify such mistakes immediately while Starmer would surrender control again to the EU.”

The Conservatives declined to comment.