Nigel Farage struck a defiant tone after being informed by police that reporting on the illegal boat migrants was not “essential travel”, saying that he will continue “to cover this scandal” despite the police warnings and the criticism from the “sneerocracy” in the mainstream media.

On Monday evening, two officers from Kent Police visited Mr Farage after he travelled to the port at Dover, where he filmed UK Border Force “acting as a taxi service” as they brought illegal migrants that had set sail from France ashore at Dover.

Describing the late-night visit to his home, Mr Farage wrote in The Telegraph that the police told him: “We understand that you have been to Dover today and we have received a complaint. We’ve come to talk to you about essential travel.”

“I was astonished and, although I remained polite, incredulous. I replied: ‘I’m not going to take that’,” the Brexit Party leader wrote.

“I pointed out that illegal immigration is something I have written and broadcast about. I explained that seven million people had viewed my videos online in the last week, showing this is a public interest matter in which the public is most certainly interested,” Farage added.

The UK’s lockdown law has exceptions for particular professions, including journalists. While Mr Farage is best known as a politician, he has a national radio show and is a frequent newspaper columnist.

Mr Farage mused that if a “well known political and media figure” had experienced similar police tactics after criticising the government of another country, there would have been international outrage, saying that a “host of EU-funded left-wing groups would talk about human rights, values and freedoms”.

“I don’t know if I will be stopped and fined if I attempt to do my job again. However, I will look at the shipping forecast. Without question, on the next calm day, they will come again, and I will be there to cover this scandal,” Farage proclaimed.

The arch Brexiteer also took aim at the “North London commentators” in the mainstream media that have criticised him for trying to expose the migrant crisis — notably, Sunday Times journalist Sarah Baxter who said that the issue of illegal immigration had gone “right off the boil“.

“The illegal immigration trade is run by ruthless criminal gangs. If they have been paid upfront, they have no concern for the people they have exploited. The immigrants might drown, but that doesn’t bother the gangs. Doesn’t this worry the sneerocracy?” Farage questioned.

Mr Farage also noted that of the estimated 1,000 migrants that have been brought ashore this year, some have displayed signs of the Chinese coronavirus.

“Is this not also cause for concern?” he wondered.

In April, Breitbart London reported that cases of the Chinese coronavirus were discovered in the migrant camps in Calais and Dunkirk. Yet despite this, the government has given no indication that it will turn away migrant vessels and return them to France.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka