DURING the Brexit campaign, then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage launched what would be a controversial poster.
One trade union boss reported it to the Met police, claiming it incited racial hatred.
What was on the poster and what did it have to do with Brexit?
The billboard poster was launched in 2016 and showed a huge line of what appeared to be migrants queuing up.
On the left of the poster it had in large red letters: “Breaking Point” along with “The EU has failed us all”.
While along the bottom of the poster it said: “We must break free of the EU and take back control of our borders."
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The photograph used was of migrants crossing the Croatia-Slovenia border in 2015.
Unison leader Dave Prentis though took issue with it and claimed it was a “blatant attempt to incite racial hatred” and reported it to the cops.
He said at the time: “This is scaremongering in its most extreme and vile form. Leave campaigners have descended into the gutter with their latest attempt to frighten working people into voting to leave the EU.
“To pretend that migration to the UK is only about people who are not white is to peddle the racism that has no place in a modern, caring society.
“That’s why Unison has complained about this blatant attempt to incite racial hatred and breach UK race laws.”
The poster also led Boris Johnson, who spearheaded the official Vote Leave campaign, to distance himself from it.
He said the poster was “not our campaign” and “not my politics”.
Johnson added: “If you take back control, you do a great deal to neutralise anti-immigrant feeling generally.
“I am passionately pro-immigration and pro-immigrants.”
What did Nigel Farage say about it?
At the time of the launch of the poster, Farage, now 59, said: “This is a photograph – an accurate, undoctored photograph – taken on 15 October last year following Angela Merkel’s call in the summer and, frankly, if you believe, as I have always believed, that we should open our hearts to genuine refugees, that’s one thing.
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“But, frankly, as you can see from this picture, most of the people coming are young males and, yes, they may be coming from countries that are not in a very happy state, they may be coming from places that are poorer than us, but the EU has made a fundamental error that risks the security of everybody.”
The controversial poster was also brought up during a discussion on ITV’s popular reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! with the now GB News presenter a contestant in the Australian jungle.
TV star Fred Sirieix took him to task about the poster during a discussion in camp.
Fred asked Nigel: “What’s the benefit of Brexit then? If you are an average person from Britain, what’s the benefit?”
Nigel said: “To know that we’re independent, we stand on our own two feet in the world.”
Fred said: “Brexit was about immigration, I remember your poster. I thought it was shameful what you did Nigel. Shameful.”
Nigel replied: “Sadly, sadly it was absolutely true. It was a poster showing mass young men moving illegally across borders.”
Fred said: “But it was about demonising migrants.”
Nigel replied: “No it wasn’t. In your view it was, but it wasn’t.”
To which Fred said: “It’s not only just my view.”
In the Bush Telegraph Nigel said: “I knew it wouldn’t take long, I knew politics would rear its head as indeed it did. And Fred feels very strongly about it.”
Having moved away to wash up, newspaper columnist Grace Dent said to Nick: “Brexit was his entire idea. It’s his specialist subject. Fred’s not going to change his mind on anything.”
In the Bush Telegraph Grace added: “I would 100 per cent rather wash up than listen to another single word about Brexit. I was just like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to go and put my head in that stream.’”
Nigel also said: “Brexit is about one thing and one thing only; being self-governing. We’re in charge.
“We can get it right, we can make an absolute mess of it but we’re in charge and the people who make those decisions we can hire and fire at elections where they have real power.”
Fred said: “I think the average person in the UK has lost out because of what you’ve done.”
Nigel said: “They haven’t lost out.”
In the Bush Telegraph Fred said: “Look, Nigel Farage is in the jungle with me. We’re bound to have this conversation.
"At the end of the day nothing is going to change, Nigel believes what he believes, I believe what I believe. It was only a matter of time.”
