Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Crowborough after hundreds of illegal immigrants were moved into the town under the cover of darkness.
The Reform UK leader was pictured grinning from ear-to-ear this afternoon as he met with supporters ahead of May’s local elections.
It follows a furore in East Sussex over the Home Office’s decision to transfer up to 600 asylum seekers to the Crowborough military barracks.
A steady flow of migrants has arrived since January – and another group were filmed leaving a coach yesterday as they checked in at their new self-catered accommodation.
A statement on Reform UK Sussex Weald’s Facebook page said it was ‘amazing to have a visit from a certain Nigel Farage in Crowborough’.
It added: ‘He made time to speak to everyone and loved talking to us about Crowborough and his past visits to our town.’
Mr Farage previously voiced concern about the transfer of small boat migrants to the Army Camp after the Home Office said in January it had kickstarted the process.
He told the Sussex Express: ‘If I was a resident of Crowborough, I’d be very concerned. Not so much for the use of, basically, an ex-army camp, which is really what it is, but for the fact that those who go in there are free to walk the streets and that’s the issue.
‘I actually think young men coming across the English Channel in huge numbers being free to roam our streets is a national security issue.’
At today’s visit to Crowborough the party leader was seen shaking hands with residents and speaking with several local Reform candidates.
He also talked to members of the group Crowborough Says No – among those attending weekly protests.
One protester, Lorna Marter, 37, told The Argus today, regarding Mr Farage’s visit: ‘It means that other people with a voice, that will be heard, are taking notice and they are standing up for us.
‘Because really, we’re just such a small town. People wouldn’t have heard of Crowborough until they announced this in October. We are grateful for any support really, just to get the word out there.’
Thousands of residents have held peaceful protests every Sunday since the Home Office announced its plans last October.
The site was previously used by the Ministry of Defence to train cadets who were ordered to leave the site in December as it would no longer be safe for children.
Run by Clearsprings Ready Homes, the migrants are required to sign in and out at the front gate.
The transfer comes as hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from government-funded hotels, with some sent to live in army barracks.
Eleven ‘asylum hotels’ in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have shut so far and more will close ‘in the coming weeks’, with the number still in use now down to 185.
The Crowborough military camp has been described by a Home Office spokesman as ‘basic accommodation’ – with around 350 people transferred so far.
The move comes amid Keir Starmer’s pledge to close all hotels housing asylum seekers before the next general election.
Immigration minister Alex Norris said: ‘Hotels were meant to be a short-term stopgap under the previous government, but they spiralled out of control – costing taxpayers billions and dumping the consequences on local communities.
‘We are shutting them down by moving people into more basic accommodation, scaling up large sites, removing record numbers of people with no right to remain.’
