Farage says migrants have made UK ‘unrecognisable’

UKIP leader Nigel Farage during his speech at the UKIP Spring Conference

The Ukip leader said Britain had lost control of its borders in his spring conference speech in Torquay. He said immigration would dominate the polls in May.

And Mr Farage told the conference: “Eighty per cent of us in this country believe open door immigration is irresponsible, against the interests of the people in this country and that it must stop.

“We have seen since 2004 a doubling of youth unemployment, we have seen since that time wage compression – people doing jobs now taking home less money than they were 10 years ago.

“All of this has happened because we now have a totally distorted labour market in Britain, because of the massive oversupply that has come to us from eastern Europe.

“It’s ordinary folk, it’s ordinary families that are paying the financial price.

“But what about the social price of this?

“The fact that in scores of our cities and market towns, this country in a short space of time has frankly become unrecognisable.

“Whether it is the impact on local schools and hospitals, whether it is the fact in many parts of England you don’t hear English spoken any more.

“This is not the kind of community we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.”

The Ukip leader said none of the three traditional parties had any answers for the British people, claiming they “did not lift a finger” to stop freedom of movement restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria ending in January.

He highlighted yesterday’s immigration figures which showed a big increase in net migration, during a keynote address.

Mr Farage also claimed that his party represented the biggest threat to the political mainstream for a generation.

Mr Farage said people who supported open door immigration were welcome to back the Conservatives, Labour or the Liberal Democrats on May 22.