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Farage: 'We Need Control Over Immigration'

Nigel Farage has said Britain needs to regain control of its borders with a "common sense" immigration policy which would see a five-year ban on unskilled workers.

The UKIP leader announced his party would promise an Australian-style points-based system to stop what he called a flood of unskilled immigrants putting pressure on schools, the health service and housing, and pushing down wages.

He said he wanted to control the "quantity and quality" of people coming to the UK.

In a speech to unveil the party's immigration policy in central London, Mr Farage claimed that one new home was built every seven minutes to cope with current rates of immigration.

He said that 77% of the public wanted Britain to take back control of her borders.

And he said that it was impossible for the country to have a proper immigration policy while a member of the European Union.

In comments made ahead of the speech, Mr Farage ruled out imposing "arbitrary targets" for immigration despite an earlier pledge by the party that it would set an annual cap of 50,000.

However, Mr Farage told Sky News that if UKIP's plans for a points system were introduced then only between 20,000 and 50,000 people would come to the UK for work in a year.

The party's immigration spokesman, Steven Woolfe, said UKIP had abandoned the idea of a cap or target after net migration figures last week which showed David Cameron failed to hit his target to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands by 200,000.

In the year to September the net migration figure stood at 298,000 - three times the number the Prime Minister had pledged.

Sky News Political Correspondent Jason Farrell said: "Nigel Farage is making political capital out of the Conservative failure on its promise to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands.

"He's calculated that he doesn’t need to make the same promises as the Conservatives about numbers; far better to mock David Cameron for making the promise in the first place – and thus distance himself from what he calls 'the political classes'.

Under the UKIP plans, the points-based system will be complemented by a new quango - a Migration Control Commission - whose job will be to cut net migration to the UK. The UK border staff would also be increased by 2,500.

In Australia, which caps immigrant numbers, potential migrants are required to answer a series of questions about their skills, for which they are awarded points.

Applicants need at least 60 points or their request for a visa is rejected.

Despite establishing a visa system based on this premise, Mr Farage said UKIP would ensure the right number of highly skilled workers from across the globe are able to enter the UK.

UKIP proposes an "ethical" visa system for work, and abolition of current rules discriminating EU citizens from non-EU citizens.

Under UKIP's policy, upon qualifying on the points-based system, highly skilled workers would be issued with a visa valid for up to five years.

For unskilled workers, there would be a moratorium for five years, while there would be no amnesty on illegal immigration.

A government annual review would monitor the policy.