Parts of the UK have become "unrecognisable" due to the impact of mass immigration over the past decade, UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said.
He told activists at UKIP's spring conference that opening the UK's borders to new EU members had had a detrimental impact on social cohesion.
He also said he felt "uncomfortable" about the unwillingness of new arrivals to learn and speak English.
Mr Farage has insisted he believes his party can win May's European elections.
In a speech to party members in Torquay he said that "open door, mass immigration" had hurt the poorest in the UK and that UKIP - which wants to leave the EU - would lead a "patriotic fightback" in May.
While UKIP supported migrants coming to the UK to fill specific jobs - where there were skills shortages - he said economic problems in the eurozone meant the influx of low-skilled labour to the UK was likely to accelerate and questioned the social and cultural impact it had had.
"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 that 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 UK, Mr Farage said, had been "betrayed" by "a political class that had sold out to Brussels", resulting in the undermining of legal and political institutions and the loss of control over the country's borders.
The latest official figures, which showed a sharp rise in net migration last year driven by new arrivals from within the EU, illustrated the scale of the problem facing the UK, he added.
"You cannot have your own immigration policy and remain a member of the European Union," he said.
He suggested fundamental changes in the UK's relationship with Brussels were "unobtainable" and that David Cameron's pledge of a referendum in 2017 was designed to "kick the issue in the long grass" until after the general election.
Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:14 pm