UKIP leader Nigel Farage: Staying in EU will leave Britain 'even more vulnerable to terrorism'

Mr Farage is set to head a panel of speakers at the 'Say No To The EU' event, being held at Wolverhampton's Dunstall Park racecourse later this month.

He said: "If we vote to remain in this Union we will be helpless to stop the spread of EU legislation that holds back our economic potential and makes life hard for those who run small businesses.

"If we remain in this Union we will be even more vulnerable to terrorism and to the kinds of scenes that we saw in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

"The logical, practical and safe thing to do is to cut our ties with a failing political union and take back control of our lives. All it needs to defeat the big banks, the vested interests of the big businesses and our craven politicians is for you to believe in Britain and vote to leave this European Union."

The event is the latest in a series of public meetings held by the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group in the European Parliament.

It is set to take place on February 20, the day after David Cameron is expected to present the final outcome of his renegotiations with the EU Commission over the UK's continuing membership of the EU.

Mr Farage added: "Our campaign to leave the EU is based on fact. It costs £55 million every single day for Britain to be a member of this European Union.

"Our Parliament is no longer sovereign and a majority of our laws are made for us by the EU. Our own Supreme Court can be overruled by a court in Luxembourg.

"Immigration into the UK is now running at record levels due to open borders we now share with the entire European Union.

"Our political class have talked about controlling migration and bringing down numbers but the truth is that they have handed control of our borders to the EU and we now cannot control who comes to Britain nor how many."

He added that global trade would continue without the need for political union

"All I'm really asking is for the UK once again to become a self-governing, independent country," he said.

"A country that makes its own laws, negotiates its own trade deals, is free to put its own national interest first and controls its own borders."

The event takes place after UKIP's inaugural West Midlands conference, which is set to feature a Muslim cleric as well as speeches from deputy leader Paul Nuttall and West Midlands MEPs Bill Etheridge, Jill Seymour and James Carver.

For ticket details visit saynotoeu.com or call 0333 6663366.