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Anger boris johnson Is defended himself against claims that he was responsible for a large increase in immigration,
East Prime Minister denied what he was guilty of Nigel Farage has called the “Borisov” of immigration when he was in downing street,
Instead Mr Johnson criticized Partner’s immigration record conservative Former Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and David Cameron.
And in a symbol of his poor relationship with the reform leader, Mr Johnson refused to refer to him by name.
Mr Johnson said his plan to stop boats by sending illegal migrants to Rwanda would have worked but Mr Sunak failed to bring the plan to fruition.
And he said Mr Cameron was wrong to announce a specific target for cutting immigration.
Mr Johnson, who was forced to resign as prime minister in 2022, heated up when challenged over Mr Farage’s claim he was responsible for the “Boriswave” of immigration.
Mr Johnson said: “My mandate was to take back control and that’s what I did.”
Criticizing Mr Sunak’s decision to call early elections in 2024, he added: “The only way to get the people back was Rwanda. I don’t know why we didn’t implement Rwanda. Why did we go into the country before we did that? It was a mistake.”
Urging Keir Starmer to revive the Rwanda scheme, he said: “It was and is a very good policy. It would have solved the problem of small boats.”
Mr Johnson has defended his record on immigration and distanced himself from the so-called “Boriswave” of migrants.
The former prime minister blamed Rishi Sunak for failing to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and suggested Sir Keir Starmer should revive the scheme.
He said Mr Sunak failed to highlight his success in bringing about Brexit because his administration was “too busy campaigning on compulsory maths A-levels and banning cigars.”
in an interview with Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson became angry when pressed last month on Mr Farage’s comments about what he called a “Boriswave” of immigration to Britain during Mr Johnson’s tenure.
Mr Johnson said his government had “no idea how many people had come”, because of “the system we have inherited”.
He added: “We didn’t know how many EU students were coming back. We didn’t know how many were going to take the Ukrainian scheme or the Hong Kong scheme. And those numbers were very high, but now we have a system that enables us to have a net zero which was not legally possible before.
“Whatever you say about the government I lead, I say two things: we have restored full democratic legal control over our laws and our borders. And if people choose, we can have zero immigration to the UK.
“We took back legal control. Yes, it’s true that if you look at the immediate post-Covid year, we had a lot of things coming together at once. Ukrainians, Hong Kongers, Chinese, and a huge group of EU students were coming back to complete their courses. People don’t look at the last year when we had the lowest performance ever.
“Every single government department was saying they couldn’t be sure that crops were being harvested in the fields, or pigs in blankets were being slaughtered in time for Christmas. Or fuel stations. Do you remember that?”
Refusing to call Mr Farage by name, he mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin and the reformist leader’s stance on the cause of the Ukraine war.
The reform leader thought Putin was a “person of fine standing”, said Mr Johnson, who added: “Anyone who thinks the war started because of NATO overreach is out of their mind.”
Mr Johnson suggested David Cameron was wrong to promise to reduce legal immigration by “hundreds of thousands”.
He said, “Did you ever hear me say that during the Brexit campaign? The answer is: No, you didn’t.” “My orders were to take back control and that’s what I did.”
In Mr Johnson’s final year as Prime Minister net immigration quadrupled from about 200,000 a year to 789,000, with a total of about 2.6 million people in “Borisviva”.
Sir Keir Starmer has also attacked Mr Johnson over the “Boriswave”, linking small boats crossing the English Channel to Brexit and dubbing them “Farage boats”.