Politicians join grieving husband of murdered MP Jo Cox in condemning Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration poster
Both sides of the EU referendum debate have said it was the wrong thing to do
POLITICIANS on both sides of the EU referendum debate have joined the husband of murdered MP Jo Cox in condemning Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration poster.
Mr Farage launched the poster, depicting a queue of refugees under the banner ‘Breaking Point’, on Thursday morning with advertising trucks which are intended to travel across the country.
Just hours before his wife was shot and stabbed to death outside her surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, Brendan Cox retweeted a furious message about the advert.
The message read: “I feel sick. Refugees are people fleeing being bombed, starved. Nigel Farage is a person fleeing facts and humanity.”
And after the Ukip-backed Leave.EU campaign group tweeted a picture of the poster, Mr Cox sent them a message containing just a single word: ‘Vile’.
This morning on BBC One’s Andrew Marr show Michael Gove said: “When I saw that poster I shuddered.
"I felt it was the wrong thing to do."
He defended the claims on immigration made by his own campaign about Turkey, insisting it was not wrong to ensure migrant numbers are controlled.
Andrew Marr challenged him about Vote Leave leaflets which claim Turkey's high birth rate would mean a million more people having the right to come to Britain.
Mr Gove said: “I think it is important to stress that when we are thinking about the enlargement of the European Union - and it is the official policy of the EU to accelerate Turkey's accession.
“I think the fact that both the British government and the EU want Turkey and other countries to join is clear.
“The rate and speed at which Turkey will join will depend on a variety of political factors.
“But it is the case that during the course of this year the EU want to accelerate that process and I think that when Turkey is becoming less democratic that is not the right thing to do.”
He added: “I think it is very important when we are talking about migration to take into account numbers overall as well.
“One of the things about numbers is that we benefit from migration if the numbers are controlled.”
Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Sunday Chancellor George Osborne said: “That disgusting and vile poster had echoes of the literature that was used in the 1930s.
“That is what we should say no to.
“This referendum vote is a vote on the kind of Britain we want.
“Do we want a prosperous outward looking Britain or do we want a meaner, narrower Britain that is poorer in every sense of the word?”
Jo Cox made a passionate defence of immigration in the days before her death
And Yvette Cooper told Robert Peston: "Farage is still trying to whip up fear and hatred towards refugees who are fleeing from conflict.
"And I think the rest of the Leave campaign should withdraw their posters on Turkey as well."
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But Mr Farage defended his poster on the show, saying he believed he had been a ‘victim of hatred’ during the campaign.
He said: “When you challenge the establishment in this country, they come after you.
“All we have said in this referendum campaign is we want to take back control of our lives, take back control of our borders and put in place a responsible immigration policy.”
He says the Remain campaign has been worse than Leave at making provocative comments.
And speaking on Pienaar's Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live today Mr Farage said it was the truth.
He said: "It was a direct result of what Angela Merkel did last summer which was one of the biggest policy failures of modern times.
"That's what the poster said - the EU is failing us all. Whether we look at the way they've handled this crisis, whether we look at the eurozone, the point of that poster was to say that Europe isn't working."
When asked whether he was exploiting a scare to get votes, he replied: "Something that is true can't be a scare can it.
"It was a comment about us being part of a European Union that is failing and when Angela Merkel makes a decision, whether it's a good one or a bad one, everybody else has to live with the consequences."