Nigel Farage hits back at critics of new 'racist' Ukip poster campaign #CarryGobySeanKellz #FutureGroupNG

NIGEL Farage has hit back at critics who have branded Ukip's latest poster campaign "racist" and "alarmist".

Nigel Farage has defended the new campaign [PA]

The party is using £1.5 million of funding from millionaire ex-Tory donor Paul Sykes to launch its biggest-ever publicity drive ahead of the May 22 poll, which many observers believe it could win.
The posters carry stark warnings that "British workers are hit hard by unlimited foreign labour".
One says that 26 million people in Europe are looking for work, with a picture of a finger pointing at the reader alongside the message "and whose job are they after?".
Under the slogan "take back control of our country", other posters complain that 75 per cent of British laws are made in Brussels and that UK taxpayers fund the "celebrity lifestyle" of EU bureaucrats.
Critics compared the immigration posters with those used in the past by the far-right British National Party, and Labour MP Mike Gapes branded them "racist".
He appealed to "decent" voters to turn out to oppose Ukip, while Conservative minister Lord Debden said: "Ukip stands for the worst in human beings: our prejudice, selfishness, and fear."
Responding to Lord Debden's comments on ITV's Daybreak, Mr Farage said Ukip was "standing up and speaking for ordinary people".
He said: "He is part of the establishment who have given British people a rotten time over the course of the last 10 years."
"We are a non-sectarian, non-racist political party.

We are not against anybody from any part of the world

Nigel Farage

"If I was Romanian, I would come to London too. I don't blame people from poor countries for coming here, but I think it is the job of the British Government to put the interests of our own people first.
"There is no angry language. There is very cool and calm language.
"We are not against anybody from any part of the world.
"But to have an open door to 485 million people from the rest of Europe, many from poor countries, many from countries where youth unemployment rates are as high as 60 per cent, means there is an influx of foreign labour into Britain, the likes of which we have never seen, and it is working families in Britain who have paid a huge price for that over the last 10 years."
His comments came as a senior church leader called for an end to "alarmist" rhetoric on immigration.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said it was wrong to use expressions that suggest "dismay or distress at all these people coming to this country".
He did not refer to any party in particular, but appealed to all sides to celebrate the contribution of immigrants rather than "anger and dismay".

The posters carry stark warnings that 'British workers are hit hard by unlimited foreign labour' [PA]

Critics compared the immigration posters with those used in the past by the far-right BNP [PA]

"What I would appeal today is that the debate about immigration is done with a sense of realism and a sense of respect - and that it is not cushioned in expressions which are alarmist and evocative of anger or of dismay or distress at all these people coming to this country," he said.
Mr Farage, who will formally launch his party's European election campaign in Sheffield today, dismissed the concerns of the "chattering classes".
"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," he said.
"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."
Mr Sykes said: "An overwhelming victory for Ukip will break the political mould in the UK, forcing Labour and the Lib Dems to back a full-scale referendum and intensifying the popular pressure for that to be staged as early as general election day 2015."
Ukip says that its fast-rising membership has now passed 36,000 - only around 8,000 behind the Liberal Democrats and on course to overtake Nick Clegg's junior coalition party by the time of the 2015 general election.
Mr Clegg appealed for help from Labour and pro-EU Tories to counter Ukip's arguments in the run-up to May 22 and dismissed Mr Farage's claims to be an insurgent.

The posters have also been described as alarmist [PA]

Ukip are looking strong ahead of the May elections [PA]

He wrote in The Guardian that Ukip is part of the anti-Brussels "establishment" and its leader is the sort of professional politician he accused others of being.
"Of all Nigel Farage's far-fetched claims - and there are many - the most outlandish is the idea that Ukip's call for an exit is the insurgents' battle cry," he said.
"What poppycock. For a start, Farage is every bit the professional politician he enthusiastically reviles. He and I were elected to the European Parliament on the same day in 1999.
"I left after five years. The Ukip leader is still there.
"More important, there is nothing remotely new about his party's ambitions. Ukip is simply the fresh face of a long-standing Eurosceptic establishment, supported by many in the Tory party and significant parts of the press."
Mr Clegg acknowledged that a British exit from the EU was now "plausible" but insisted he would happily take on Mr Farage in more televised debates - despite being widely seen as having lost to him in the two broadcast earlier this year.
Admitting the pro-EU case lacked "volume", he said: "The Lib Dems have started this debate - but we cannot win it alone.
"We want to work with others to deliver the firepower needed to challenge the Eurosceptic establishment.
"If Labour is still a pro-European party, it needs to come off the fence. Tory modernisers must risk the wrath of their backbenchers and speak out."
Meanwhile, Poland's ambassador to the UK questioned the appetite of his countrymen to continue seeking work in the UK, saying wages were now higher in his country.
"This huge wave of people who came to EU countries trying to get well-paid jobs is over now," he told The Independent, 10 years after Poland joined the EU.
"There are more opportunities in Poland, we have had huge economic success, wages are higher in Poland now and there are more jobs in many parts of Poland, so I think this is over.
"We are getting out of the crisis and there are more and more opportunities in Poland.
"Of course people would like to stay in Poland and not live abroad. They love the UK but if you are at home there is no place like home."