UKIP calls for "proper border controls"

Launching UKIP's European south east election campaign in Southampton party leader Nigel Farage said he believed in "proper border controls" and a work permit scheme to curb immigration.

He said the UK had suffered a "migratory flood" from Eastern Europe with an over-supply of the unskilled labour market leaving public services struggling to cope.

Mr Farage insisted UKIP was a "non-racist, non-sectarian party" and believed in the right to work abroad. But he said under UKIP plans many of Southampton's estimated 20,000 Polish residents "would find themselves being unemployed" and have to move back.

UKIP has already angered Tory defence minister Nicholas Soames for using an iconic image of his grandfather Winchester Churchill as part of its poster campaign. A dozen billboards have been put up in Southampton.

Mr Soames said he was "affronted beyond words" and called UKIP a "petty nationalist party".

He complained last year when the BNP used a similar image.

Mr Farage, who is married to a German, said he had toyed with using a Spitfire but that an image of Mr Churchill tested better.

He said UKIP now represented the "majority view" on Europe, and that the election was a chance to say no to the EU as well as offering a referendum on the European Constitution that never happened.

He said pulling out of Europe would save the UK an estimated at £40m a day as a "membership fee", which is set to rise by up to 60 per cent over next four years through loss of rebate.

Former top EU accountant Marta Andreasen, who was sacked after raising concerns its budget was open to abuse and fraud, is running as UKIPs number two candidate in the south east. She insisted the EU is not reformable and promised to expose how taxpayers' money was being wasted if elected to the European Parliament.