Nigel Farage has said he believes he has the support across the country to win a referendum on leaving the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr Farage said: “On Monday, the Prime Minister spoke and said, ‘our commitment to membership of the ECHR is absolute’.

“Rishi Sunak, responding for the opposition, didn't query that in any way at all. He sort of made a vague reference in the election that we might consider leaving. He never meant it.

“So I suggested for a bit of fun, wouldn't it be great to have a referendum on the ECHR because the country would vote to leave.

“In this parliament, I felt more outnumbered in the last week here than I ever did in Brussels. There are more Brexiteers in Brussels than there are in this Westminster parliament. This is a Remainer parliament. It's a rejoiner parliament, it's a globalist parliament. It's a parliament totally unconcerned with massive population growth.

“So the five of us from Reform UK may be very much in the minority, with a few Conservatives having the guts to back us, but I think in the country, we've got huge support.”

The former Tory government's initial plan to fly illegal immigrants to Rwanda was blocked by the ECHR in June 2022 after issuing injunctions over the specifics of individual cases.

Meanwhile Mr Farage called it a “load of baloney” that Sir Keir Starmer will tackle smuggling gangs.

He claimed the Government has no plans to bring down legal immigration either.

Speaking on GB News, the Brexit architect said: “Starmer set out six key priorities for the general election. Immigration, either legal or illegal, wasn't even in those six, and in the King's Speech, immigration is mentioned twice, asylums mentioned once.

“The idea that we're going to go after the gangs - what a load of baloney. We've been going after the drug gangs for decades with almost no effect.

“On legal immigration they have nothing to say. Both main parties, in my opinion, are in hock to giant multinational businesses who want as much cheap labour as they can possibly get and, to hell with the social consequences.

“I believe two things: One, that the exploding population is diminishing the quality of life of everybody in our country. Number two I've said before, this is a national security crisis.

“There are young, undocumented males coming from war zones, coming from places where terrorism is rife, coming from cultures of gang warfare and coming from places where women aren't even second class citizens.

“This is a social disaster for our country. You only have to look at Malmo in Sweden now in terms of rape and murder, after they allowed a huge number of young males from the Middle East and elsewhere to go there.”

Sir Keir Starmer said last week he was open to the idea of Britain processing claims offshore, after a day spent discussing illegal migration with fellow European leaders at Blenheim Palace.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly said he wants to “smash the gangs”, referencing the syndicates facilitating small boat crossings, and clear the asylum backlog.