Nigel Farage admits ‘I’ve changed my mind’ as he drops major election bombshell

Nigel Farage says he has "changed his mind" about the timing of this year’s general election after Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill was finally ratified by Parliament.

But the former Brexit Party leader challenged the Prime Minister’s assertion that the first flights taking failed asylum seekers to the East African country will take off within 12 weeks, insisting: “It isn’t going to happen.”

Mr Farage, speaking on GB News, on which he is now a presenter, was commenting after last night’s tense stand-off between the Commons and the Lords.

Mr Sunak's deportation plan is poised to become law after peers ended their protracted opposition to the controversial policy.

The unelected chamber ended the deadlock after MPs rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state made a statement to Parliament to that effect after consulting an independent monitoring body.

The ex-MEP continued: “What he didn't tell you is even if we were to ignore the European Court of Human Rights, which I believe to be very, very unlikely, indeed, we still have something called the Human Rights Act of 1998, which incorporated the very convention that is used by that court in Strasbourg.

“This idea that those planes are ‘going to Rwanda in 10 to 12 weeks time come what may’, folks, believe me, it isn't going to happen.

“And I've been right about this consistently for the last four years.”

Apologising for sounding “a bit big-headed”, Mr Farage added: “Literally I have been right about this. I predicted the crisis. I've said all the way through Rwanda it wouldn't work.”

Mr Farage said Mr Sunak’s speech hours early had convinced him an election would be called sooner rather than later. Tory MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg agreed, telling the former Ukip leader the “mood music was shifting towards a summer election”.

Outlining his reasoning, Mr Farage said: “Today, the Prime Minister said ‘no foreign court will stop us from getting these flights off’.

“Now that is a very bold statement for a British Prime Minister to make. He's basically saying whatever is said by that court in Strasburg, we are simply going to ignore it.

“But he knows that half his own party, half his own MPs, would be appalled by that because they think the European Court of Human Rights is a good thing.

“And because of that, I've rather changed my view today on something quite significant.

“If you'd asked me first thing this morning before that speech, whether there would be a summer general election, not an autumn general election, I’d have said, ‘Well, I reckon it's two-thirds on it being an autumn election, a third on it being a summer election’.

Referring to the May 2 local elections, Mr Farage said: “I have now shifted my view today. I would now say it's two- thirds likely that we're going to have a general election at the end of June or early July, however well or badly the Conservatives may do in the elections coming up next week.

“Frankly, the reason I think there's going to be an early election is because you can't keep upping the ante on stopping the boats and sending people to Rwanda and keep failing.

"He must know, his advisers must know, that all the while the Human Rights Act is there in law there will be lawyers on behalf of people who are going to be deported, who will go to the courts and British judges will find in their favour and not allow them to go to Rwanda.

“So rather than wait, for what seems to be his flagship policy to disintegrate, he'll call a general election before making promises that he can't deliver. That's my thought.”

Commenting after passage of the legislation, which is now awaiting Royal Assent, Mr Sunak said: "The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.

"Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives."

French media is today reporting that at least five people died overnight attempting to cross the English Channel is a flimsy dinghy after setting sail from Wimereux, close to Calais.