General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Brexit Rejection of Neoliberal Tyranny [View all]muriel_volestrangler
(101,262 posts)The UK does have complete control over immigration from outside the EU; what it has to allow under EU rules is EU citizens coming here to work. That's what 'control of the borders' was about. There are very few Muslim EU citizens coming here, but a lot more from Eastern Europe. Farage will sometimes say anti-Muslim things, andbut you did claim it was 'predominantly' about anti-Muslim bigotry, when it wasn't.
UKIP started back in the 90s, and has built up its support since then; it was the 2004 accession of 10 mostly Eastern European countries that saw the big increase in their vote (1999 European election 7.0%; 2004 16.1%), and then when Romanians and Bulgarians were allowed to work freely in the UK (that was 2014; 2009 election 16.5%, 2014 26.6%).