Brexit racist? UK is Europe's ‘ONLY member’ not to have anti-immigrant party in parliament

Much of the bloc now sees the UK as “intolerant, introverted and unwelcoming” to Europeans – but in fact the opposite is true, the leading Brexiteer said.

Mr Hannan said the British electorate has rejected populist, anti-immigrant politics and is the only EU member to not have a single MP from such a party in parliament.

And in a damning indictment of the outdated attitude in Brussels, he warned the treatment of any anti-EU party as xenophobic was only serving to drive the rise of the far-right.

The Tory MEP said the EU refuses to acknowledge Eurosceptic views and the bloc’s integration policy is not the “antidote to bigotry” it is touted as.

He said the surge in support for the Sweden Democrats – a party with neo-Nazi roots – is just one of a string of examples of how Eurocrats are contributing to an issue they insist they are trying to solve.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hannan warned Brussels “almost never distinguishes” between moderate Eurosceptic parties and those which harbour more extreme right-wing and anti-immigrant views.

He said: “Any ‘anti-European’ party is treated as xenophobic. Thus do they encourage the very thing they purport to fear, pushing their critics into the arms of the far-right.

“Just as EU functionaries responded to the British referendum by accelerating their plans for fiscal and military integration, so they insist that the answer to the Continental populists is ‘more Europe’.

“Really? Ask yourself something. Which EU country now has the most positive view of immigration?

“Which EU country has no populist anti-immigration party represented in its main legislative chamber?

“The answer to both questions is the UK.

“For decades, European integration has been sold as an antidote to bigotry. But what if the opposite turns out to be true?

“What if jamming nations together without their consent makes them angry and frustrated? What if the nation-state turns out, after all, to be the surest vessel for liberal democracy?

“Two years ago, British voters disregarded the advice of their political elites and voted to take back control.

“Feeling that they are masters in their own house, they now eschew anti-immigrant populism.

“Brexit, you might say, is already working.”