Farage defends Ukip poster campaign...

[dutchman]

Party launches biggest ever publicity drive with anti-immigration posters ahead of European parliamentary elections



Nigel Farage has defended a new immigration-centred Ukip poster campaign as "a hard-hitting reflection of reality" after it was attacked as racist by political opponents.

The anti-EU party is using £1.5m of funding from Paul Sykes, a multimillionaire ex-Tory donor, to launch its biggest ever publicity drive before European parliamentary elections on 22 May.

The ads, to be displayed at hundreds of billboard sites across the country, carry stark warnings that "British workers are hit hard by unlimited foreign labour" and that 26 million unemployed people across Europe are "after" UK jobs.

Under the slogan "take back control of our country", other posters complain that 75% of British laws are made in Brussels and that UK taxpayers fund the "celebrity lifestyle" of EU bureaucrats.

Critics compared the immigration posters to those used in the past by the far-right British National party.

The Labour MP Mike Gapes said the posters were racist. He appealed to "all decent British Commonwealth and EU citizens" to register to vote in May's polls.

But Farage, whose party is tipped to push the Conservatives into third place and perhaps win the election outright, dismissed the concerns of the "chattering classes".

He said: "These posters are a hard-hitting reflection of reality as it is experienced by millions of British people struggling to earn a living outside the Westminster bubble.

"Are we going to ruffle a few feathers among the chattering classes? Yes. Are we bothered about that? Not in the slightest.

"Ukip is hugely grateful to Paul Sykes for his magnificent contribution to the great cause of restoring Britain's ability to be a self-governing nation. The political earthquake I have spoken of is on its way."

Sykes said he believed next month's European elections were the most important for many years.

"The other parties, whatever their merits, are content to work within the existing Brussels straitjacket.

"They cannot do anything about immigration or British workers being undercut by cheap foreign labour and they are prisoners of the European court of justice and the closely related European court of human rights, which stops us deporting foreign criminals and terrorists."

The posters will be displayed in two waves over the next four weeks and be accompanied by ads in digital media.

[rebbonk]

Farage is certainly ruffling a few feathers, he's also charismatic; which as we know from history can be quite a dangerous combination.

Still not made my mind up about the guy.

[dutchman]