Farage condemned for ‘exploiting’ Paris atrocity

UKIP leader Nigel Farage was accused of exploiting the Paris massacre last night by blaming a ‘fifth column’ and ‘gross multiculturalism’ and calling for tighter immigration controls.

Politicians from all sides joined David Cameron in condemning Mr Farage’s ‘sickening’ attempt to make political capital out of the terrorist attack.

The Ukip leader said: ‘What should have been done is we should have had a controlled immigration policy.

‘We in Britain, and I’ve seen some evidence of this in other countries too, have a really rather gross policy of multiculturalism. By that, what I mean is that we’ve encouraged people from other cultures to remain within those cultures and not integrate fully within our communities. We have I’m afraid, and mercifully it’s small, but we do have a “fifth column” within our countries.’

Mr Farage told LBC Radio that Western societies had ‘turned a blind eye’, citing sexual abuse by members of Muslim Pakistani communities in the UK. He went further on Chan- nel 4 News, saying: ‘There is a very strong argument that says that what happened in Paris is a result – and we’ve seen it in London, too – is a result, I’m afraid, of now having a fifth column living within these countries.

‘We’ve got people living in these countries, holding our passports, who hate us.’

Mr Cameron said: ‘I think today is not the day to make political remarks or political arguments.

‘The cause of this terrorism is the terrorists themselves – they must be found, they must be confronted, they must be punished.’

Home Secretary Theresa May said: ‘It is irresponsible to talk about a fifth column. We should all be working across society to ensure that we deal with and eradicate extremism wherever it exists.’

Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Farage was ‘seeking to divide us’, while former Cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell said his remarks were ‘sickening’.

Liberal Democrat leaders Nick Clegg added: ‘I am dismayed that Nigel Farage immediately thinks, on the back of the bloody murders that we saw on the streets of Paris yesterday, his first reflex is to make political points.’