Brexit: Fears over Turkey joining the EU are a 'classic Nigel Farage scare tactic', claims MP Damian Green

Fears over Turkey joining the EU are a 'classic Nigel Farage tactic', claims Damien Green MP

UKIP leader Nigel Farage believes Turkey joining the EU would be a 'disaster'

Monday, May 23, 2016

Conservative MP Damian Green has suggested that comments made by UKIP leader Nigel Farage about the dangers of Turkey joining the EU are a 'classic tactic' designed to scare the British public.

Farage, who is firmly backing the Leave campaign ahead of next month's EU referendum, has said that if Turkey joined the EU it would be a 'total disaster for Britain', with more migrants certain to flood to UK shores.

But Green, MP for Ashford and minister of state for policing and criminal justice, insists this simply would not be the case.

"I would be very surprised if Turkey were a member of the EU in the next 20 years," he told Julia Hartley-Brewer. "The Leave campaign is reduced to saying we don't have a veto over this - yes we do, as does every other country in the EU, for example Greece and Cyprus.

"This scare story is a classic Nigel Farage tactic - find a population of a country and announce this many people have the right to come to Britain.

"We have border controls, we can control our borders, we can decide if people have visas or not."

The MP also insisted that support from other countries, such as the USA and Australia, for the United Kingdom to remain in the EU, is not purely about their own gain.

"The interest from the rest of the world is precisely because they want Britain’s voice to be strong in the European Union," he added. "They want our voice to be strong in the world.

"When you have an absolutely overwhelming consensus that there are huge risks, and potential huge damage, from leaving, then we should take that seriously."