‘No arbitrary targets’: Farage unveils UKIP immigration policy

2015/03/04
UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage (Reuters/Neil Hall)

Speaking in central London, Farage will claim the electorate cannot trust any other party on the matter, and is likely to embarrass the government with the most recent immigration figures.


The figures released last week show that net immigration stands at nearly 300,000, three times higher than Cameron’s original pledge to cap immigration at 100,000.


Farage is also expected to say he will not set out an “arbitrary” target ahead of the general election, but focus on giving highly skilled workers and “our Commonwealth friends” priority over unskilled immigrants.


UKIP has previously said it wants to set the cap at 50,000.


He suggests a moratorium on unskilled worker visas for five years and a points-based system, not dissimilar to that of Australia, to allow in skilled workers.


He further believes new arrivals should not have access to the National Health Service, therefore requiring private health insurance.


READ MORE: ‘I’d be a bad prime minister,’ UKIP’s Farage admits


On Tuesday night, Farage called the current system “unsustainable, unfair and unethical,” saying it gives preference to EU migrants over those from outside Europe.


Speaking to the BBC ahead of the speech, Farage said he wanted to bring immigration levels “back to normality.”


Normality was what we had from Windrush right up until the year 2000, where we had net migration into Britain ... between 20,000 and 50,000 people a year.”


He added that since then “we have gone mad, we opened the doors to much of the world but in particular we opened up the doors to 10 former communist countries, and as a result of our EU membership we have absolutely zero control over the numbers who come.”


The party leader said caps are arbitrary, and the approach to reducing immigration should be more flexible.


I'm not putting caps or targets ... you need to have more flexibility than that. The point is this: we currently have no control over the numbers, we are incapable of debating anything now in politics without caps and targets and I think the British public are bored with it.”


“In the end we can talk about numbers, we can talk about money, we can talk about the impact on wages ... but in the end there is something about this immigration debate which is about more than money. It's about communities, it's about the country in which we live,” he added.


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