Turkish citizens would not "flood" to Britain if the country joined the European Union just because they want Cadbury's chocolates, an adviser to its president has said.
Ilnur Cevik, who is close to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticised both David Cameron for "taking us for a ride" by indicating he supported the country joining the EU and the Leave campaign for using the prospect as "an alibi" for Brexit.
He said Turkey is "deeply hurting" now that the Prime Minister has indicated he is unlikely to support its EU membership after Brexit campaigners used the potential accession to warn that it could open Britain's borders to millions of Turks.
But responding to the Leave campaign's claims that could mean more Turkish criminals in the UK, Mr Cevik told BBC Two's Newsnight: "Firstly, the crime rate is not high.
"Secondly, there's no extraordinary situation in this country that we would export anything to Britain.
"But besides that, who's going to come to Britain? Why should we be flooding Britain? There's no reason.
"Whatever exists in Britain also exists in Turkey.
"We are not going to go over there just because you produce Cadbury chocolates and Maltesers, for God's sake."
On the Brexit campaign, he said: "They should not use us as an alibi, they should not use us as a pretext, they should really deal with the nitty-gritty of why they should be leaving."