UKIP Leader Blames Refugees Crisis on EU's 'Dramatic Policy Failure'

The anti EU campaign has kicked off in the UKIP heartlands of Britain with immigration reigning at the top of the agenda. Leader Nigel Farage is on his "round Britain tour" to promote 'No' ahead of the UK’s In/Out referendum on its membership of the European Union.

Speaking to 1,500 supporters in Margate, Kent, leader Nigel Farage said the current refugee crisis in Europe had focused people’s minds on the ineptitude of EU leaders. 

Thank you Margate! Tremendous first meeting. #SayNoEUTour pic.twitter.com/35W47euJhd

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 7, 2015

Resembling the Hungarian Prime Minister’s rhetoric on the need for more border control, Farage told Britain’s right leaning tabloid newspaper, The Express, "I have said that the key issue will be immigration, open borders and control".

"The migrant crisis has made people really concerned about what is going on, whether we should be part of a European Union, which has embarked on a disastrous policy failure."

At a time when sympathetic public opinion appears to be swaying government policy into allowing more Syrian refugees into the country, Farage is offering an alternative refugee argument.

This referendum will be won/lost on issue of whether we can control our borders or not. If we can't, we are not a nation. #SayNoEUTour

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 7, 2015

The UK has pledged to allow 20,000 more Syrian refugees to settle in Britain over the next five years and Germany is held up as an example to other EU countries for its treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. Meanwhile Nigel Farage blames immigration and numbers of refugees coming to UK as "dramatic policy failure of the EU, compounded by Germany and Brussels".

Farage says UK would be more generous if "640,000 foreigners hadn’t already come to Britain last year". 

The refugee crisis continues to expose deep divisions within the EU on how to handle the situation and respond to the sheer numbers of people arriving on Europe’s shores. France and Germany are to take in an extra 55,000 refugees over the next two years.

A European Commission proposal to take an extra 120,000 more refugees across Europe will be unveiled on Wednesday 9 September by EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

But the legacy of the refugee crisis, according to Nigel Farage, will be felt in 2017 when a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union will be held. His say ‘No’ to Europe campaign continues – with immigration leading the agenda.