Farage Warns Over Sex Attackers And Terrorists

Nigel Farage has claimed that foreign terrorists and sex attackers will come to Britain on EU passports if voters choose to stay in the European Union.

In an outspoken intervention, the UKIP leader argued quitting the EU was vital for national security, in an attempt to put immigration front and centre of the Leave campaign.

Speaking across the road from the Home Office, Mr Farage claimed the only way to protect the UK's borders from foreign terrorists and criminals exploiting the migrants crisis was to stop the free movement of people.

He argued that IS jihadists had taken advantage of the refugee crisis to carry out attacks in Paris and Brussels, as well as blaming refugees for sex attacks in Cologne.

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He told supporters: "We do not want the men who behaved so appallingly in Cologne to in a few years have passports that will allow them freely to come to the UK.

"Nor do we want jihadi terrorists free to travel here on EU passports.

"We need to leave the EU for the sake of national security.

"We can only control immigration if we leave the EU.

"With countries like Turkey with a population of 77 million people, Albania and Serbia waiting to join, it will only get worse if we remain."

Mr Farage also urged Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to "get onto the other side of the pitch" and start making a more assertive case over immigration.

He said: "Where the enemy are at their absolute weakest is on this whole question of open door migration, the effect that it's had on the lives of ordinary Britons over the course of the last decade and the threat that it poses given the new terror and security threat that we face in the West.

"I'm sorry to say that at the moment they don't appear to have done it."

As Mr Farage spoke, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was backing the case for Britain to remain in the EU and be part of a controversial US-EU free trade deal in Berlin.

She said: "Everybody says this from his perspective. I say it from my perspective.

"We want an economically strong and prosperous Britain in the European Union."

Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Justine Greening urged younger voters to turn out for the referendum to stop the UKIP leader deciding their future.

In a speech to the London Business School, the International Development Secretary said leaving the EU was "a one-way ticket, with no clear destination".

"Why would you let Nigel Farage decide your future?" she said.

"It's time for a new generation to have your say. This isn't about party politics, if that's what's switching you off voting."

Earlier this week Home Secretary Theresa May said remaining in the European Union made the UK "more secure from crime and terrorism".

She maintained that Britain would have no access to the European Arrest Warrant, which she said had allowed the extradition of more than 5,000 people from Britain in the last five years, and brought 675 suspected or convicted individuals to the UK to face justice.