Nigel Farage would use military force to “crush” Argentina if Buenos Aires moved against the Falkland Islands, a senior figure in his party has said.
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, made the remarks at the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, central England, held on September 3-5.
He said a Farage government would deploy every lever of the British state, including the armed forces and economic sanctions, to defend the territory. Argentina was pressing its claim because both its president and the British Government were weak, he told journalists in comments reported by Politico.
Jenrick had earlier accused the Labour Government of being too feeble to hold the islands, saying the sacrifice of British veterans of the 1982 war was set to be betrayed.
The intervention followed a televised address by Argentine President Javier Milei on September 3 in which he said the Falklands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, belonged to his country by history and by law.
Milei said the islanders had no legitimate right to self-determination and announced sanctions against companies drilling at the Sea Lion field, developed by Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum.
He also promised a military base in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina’s southernmost province, and a new national security council.
That speech came days after US President Donald Trump said he was reviewing Washington’s long-standing support for British sovereignty, an option floated earlier this year in an internal Pentagon email as leverage against European allies.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the British position was unwavering and that the islanders’ right to self-determination was paramount. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting called the commitment to the territory “absolute and unshakeable”.
The row also touches Brussels, which holds no common position on sovereignty. The European Union was forced into a climbdown in 2023 after a joint declaration with Latin American and Caribbean states used the Argentine name for the archipelago.
Argentina is now a partner under the EU-Mercosur interim trade agreement, provisionally applied since May 1 following ratification in Buenos Aires in February.
Reform UK’s attack on Milei marks a shift for Farage, who in 2024 praised the Argentine leader’s deregulation drive and likened it to Thatcherism.
Falkland islanders voted almost unanimously to remain a British overseas territory in a referendum in 2013. The war of 1982 killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service personnel and three islanders.
