Tony Abbott has suggested the UK should put migrants “on a mothership” and send them to France as the country faces what he called “a peaceful invasion”.

The former Australian prime minister was speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester when he was asked about the immigration policy he enacted in Australia when he was in power.

The Abbott-led Liberal government enacted Operation Sovereign Borders soon after their election in 2013, which cracked down on asylum seekers travelling to Australia on boats.

Abbott said the UK should look at adopting some of the policies and strategies used by Australia as migration by boat continues to be a key issue in Britain’s politics.

Some of his suggestions included “establishing processing centres in British dependent territories … as opposed to putting people up in nice hotels in nice towns in Britain”.

“Whether it’s holding people in a mothership on the English Channel and then putting them in unsinkable life rafts with just enough fuel to get back to France in the middle of the night, as we did in Java,” he said.

“Or whether it’s conducting very vigorous mafia-busting operations in northern France.”

Anti-immigration protests have popped up around the country in recent times and the issue has contributed to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s low popularity in opinion polls.

Abbott claimed the UK has a right to protect itself.

“You start off with the clear understanding that any country which effectively facilitates illegal migration into yours is guilty of an unfriendly act,” he said.

“And you have a right as a sovereign nation to protect yourself against what is, in effect, a peaceful invasion.”

Abbott spoke alongside Britain’s shadow secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs, Priti Patel, who was the Home Secretary between 2019 and 2022.

During her tenure, Britain signed a controversial deal with Rwanda which would see people identified as illegal immigrants deported to the African nation.

Abbott insisted the issue of migration by boat was an issue Britain needed to act quickly on, even if it meant causing potential diplomatic issues with key neighbours like France.

“Britain has to get serious about this, and it is going to involve deeply upsetting the French,” he said.

“But hey, Britain has had a lot of experience, and it needs to happen again.”