Farage claims tragic migrant deaths could be prevented if UK made clear illegal entrants will be deported

Brexit Party leader says it is time for ‘a debate about who a refugee really is’

Nigel Farage has come under fire after suggesting that Britain could stop tragedies like the death of 39 people found in a freight container in Essex last month by sending out the message to illegal migrants that if they get to the UK they will be sent straight back.

His comments came as he launched the Brexit Party’s general election agenda including policies to cut annual immigration below 50,000.

Anti-racist campaigners accused the Brexit Party leader of “scaremongering” after he suggested that current levels of immigration were damaging British communities. And he was criticised for raising questions over who should qualify as a refugee.

Immigration was at the heart of a “contract with the people” released by the Brexit Party in place of a traditional manifesto.

Claiming the title of “the new radicals” for the party, Mr Farage said the document showed that “we want to lead a political revolution that puts the ordinary people first ... We are the party for small business and for small people.”

The launch of the document in London came with the Brexit Party lagging behind in the polls, having announced that it will not stand candidates in 317 seats won by Tories in the 2017 election.

Mr Farage rejected accusations that he was simply splitting the anti-EU vote, insisting instead that Brexit Party candidates were “within touching distance” of Labour in some of the party’s seats and were helping Conservative chances in others.

“Where we are putting the effort in, we are picking up Labour votes and moving up in the polls,” he said.

On immigration, Mr Farage said: “We have a population crisis, directly as a result of policies since the late 1990s. As we inexorably head towards 70 million people being here by the end of the next decade, that does damage to people’s lives and people’s communities.

“You can’t measure how content a country is by simply looking at GDP numbers. There is such a thing as society and community and that has too much been ignored.

“We would very much want to get immigration numbers down to what for 60 years were acceptable and workable post-war levels of about 50,000 people every year.”

He accused the Conservatives of having “no intention” to reduce migrant numbers because of their business backers’ need for cheap labour.

Asked how he would prevent the deaths of illegal migrants like those in the Essex case, Mr Farage said Britain should deter them by sending out the message: “If you enter our country illegally – across the Channel or under the Channel or in the back of a container lorry – you will not be allowed to stay.”

And he said: “Perhaps we can have a genuine debate about who a refugee really is.”

Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, said: “If Nigel Farage doesn’t know who a refugee is, I’ll tell him. It’s someone who has been forced to flee their home for fear of persecution.

“We must do all we can to protect people in that awful, vulnerable position, and the UK has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need.”

And the chief executive of Hope not Hate, Nick Lowles, said Mr Farage’s position was “fundamentally dishonest”.

“Farage’s position on immigration is always that it is too high, which is why the Brexit Party’s policy is rooted neither in reality or feasibility, it’s just a device by which to subtly say that there are too many foreigners,” said Mr Lowles.

“Again and again this morning Farage invoked the idea that the interests of immigrants and everyone else are somehow opposed. He replayed his disgraceful ‘breaking point’ move by referring to a ‘population crisis’ that ‘does damage to people’s lives, to people’s communities’.

“His scaremongering about the impact on public services, neighbourhoods and quality of life ignored the positive contribution immigration has made to all of those areas. He raised the issue of ‘cheap labour’ despite the evidence showing that immigration does not have a significant or long-term effect on wages.”

Mr Farage also set out Brexit Party policies including phasing out the BBC licence fee, replacing the House of Lords with a democratic chamber and allowing national referendums on any issue where 5 million people give their support.

He claimed that by ending contributions to the EU budget, claiming back £7bn from the European Investment Bank, cancelling HS2 and cutting the foreign aid budget, the Brexit Party would save £200bn to spend on its priorities.

He said that ending VAT on domestic energy could save the average family £65 a year, while bills for food, clothing and footwear could be reduced by removing tariffs after the UK leaves the EU.

To fight climate change, he proposed that the UK should lead an international effort to plant hundreds of millions of trees to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

And he said 1 million small businesses could be saved paperwork and expense by introducing a £10,000 threshold before corporation tax is payable.