A poll commissioned by the BBC where they report "few people" planning to migrate to the UK from Romania and Bulgaria is misleading.
The 'unbiased and politically neutral BBC' commissioned the report for Newsnight which will be aired tonight.
The BBC have today issued the (narrative) results of research they have undertaken regarding the likelihood of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens coming to live and work in the UK in 2013 and 2014. These results have given rise to headlines on the BBC News today saying that "few" people are planning to migrate to the UK and there is "no indication of huge Romanian-Bulgarian influx".
Nigel Farage MEP said: "Looking at the figures which the BBC have quoted in their report, their survey of 1,014 Bulgarian adults showed that 37% had considered moving to another EU state in the past five years (2.7m people); and that 36% intend to work elsewhere in the EU in 2013/14 (2.65m), of which 9.3% (689,000) stated the UK was their destination.
"In the survey of Romanian adults, 33% had considered moving to another EU state in the past five years (6.3m people); and 36% intend to work elsewhere in the EU in 2013/14 (1.8m), of which 4.6% (338,000) stated the UK was their destination.
"Together, the total considering moving to the UK in 2013 and 2014 was therefore over a million.
"More startlingly, though, the BBC has then concocted their astonishing 'nothing to see here' headlines out of a series of follow up questions. If you convert their stated percentages into real figures, the story is a good deal more shocking than the BBC's headlines suggest.
"It is surely perverse to suggest that there is nothing to worry about, when their own survey shows that 83,537 people (76,172 Romanians and 7,365 Bulgarians) are already attending job interviews in the UK; 263,337 people (57,129 Romanians and 206,208 Bulgarians) are currently looking for a job in the UK with the help of a recruitment company; 236,405 people (133,301 Romanians and 103,104 Bulgarians) are currently looking for a job in the UK without the help of arecruitment company; and 164,547 (76,172 Romanians and 88,375 Bulgarians) are already in the process of finding a place to live in the UK."
Farage went on, "According to the BBC's own figures, the total number of people in Bulgaria and Romania who are actively looking for a job in the UK is 499,741; while another 248,082 are progressing a job application or looking for accommodation.
"In short, according to the BBC's survey, three-quarters of a million adults from Romania and Bulgaria are currently in the process of trying to move to the UK in 2013/2014.
"Theses are figures that we should be worried about, when we have significant and rising youth unemployment, when the NAO says that next year the country will be 250,000 primary school places short, and when the Government admit that they want to build on 1,500 square miles to accommodate the increase in population".
Farage said, "It looks to me that the BBC is engaging, with its headlining of this story, not in reporting the facts, but in influencing the debate."
The Government doesn't have a clue how many will come. Therefore they cannot plan and our infrastructure, already straining to cope, will see further stress.
Don't believe Cameron who tells us that he is going to curb benefit entitlement. He can't, Europe won't let him.
Who do you believe - the man who has been consistently right on Europe, immigration, the financial crisis and more, or the BBC? Take these findings with a pinch of salt and read UKIP's deputy leader Paul Nuttall on this subject, found on my blog, who visited Bulgaria earlier this year. It's a no-brainer.
I suppose if the Government cannot be honest about numbers who can blame the state broadcaster who, when it should be reporting the real reasons why we need a quarter of a million more school places (and it didn't), looks to create its own stories? Can the Conservative then cry 'bias' when their own Government cannot provide the facts? This is a deeply worrying step for the taxpayer, openness and democracy.