UKIP leader Nigel Farage has told Bolton voters that Britain will be safer from the threat of terrorism if it leaves the European Union.

Mr Farage is in the borough this evening to speak at an event at the Macron Stadium where he is aiming to convince people to vote to leave the EU.

Speaking to The Bolton News ahead of the event, he said if the country does vote for a ‘Brexit’, it will make it harder for terrorists to arrive on our shores.

He said: “I think Britain would be a lot safer if we control our own borders.

“I think at the moment, with what is coming in across the Mediterranean - with ISIS actually telling us that they are using this route to put their jihadist fighters into Europe, I think that is a very real issue.”

He made reference to events in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve where it was reported that hundreds of women were sexually assaulted by men of migrant origin, adding: “I think what happened in Cologne on New Year’s Eve and the realisation that in 3,4,5 years all those men will have German passports and can all come to Britain – I think there’s a lot of women out there who have got to say actually what does this mean for us?”

The Bolton News:

Prime Minister David Cameron is hoping that a new deal on the terms of the UK’s membership of the European Union will be enough to convince voters to vote to stay a part of the EU, but Mr Farage told Bolton voters that this is a “sham.”

He said: “David Cameron has tried to impersonate Phileas Fogg, he thought that in 80 days he could tour around 27 capitals of Europe in one of the greatest so called acts of diplomacy by a British Prime Minister in modern times.

"Then all we got was a grubby little letter from (European Council President) Donald Tusk, allowing us basically to bend rules that have existed already - in some cases for 20 years. 

“There is no substance at all, this so-called emergency break actually may lead to higher migration because there will be a rush for the door at the end of four years, when the minimum wage becomes the living wage.

“So I shall be saying tonight that it is a Cam-sham and that it has completely failed.”

Mr Farage would not be pushed on what an ‘in’ vote in the referendum would mean for his leadership of UKIP.

The Bolton News:

He said: “If it goes the way we don’t want it to go, there might actually be a much bigger UKIP – look at what happened with the Scottish National Party.

“But that is not my interest, my interest is winning the referendum, that’s what motivated me to move from business to politics 20 years ago.

“Don’t ask me to look beyond something I have spent 20 years trying to achieve.”