Ten other things Nigel Farage has tried to blame on immigration

Nigel Farage turned up late to a £25-a-head meet-the-leader Ukip event in Wales yesterday, blaming "open-door immigration" for the fact that the M4 is "not as navigable as it used to be".

Here are the other things the descendant of French refugees has blamed on foreigners...

Changing the landscape of the UK

In one of his most strident attacks on immigration, Mr Farage said parts of the country have "frankly become unrecognisable" and look "like a foreign land". (He didn't say if this included the M4).

Multilingual train carriages

In an interview with LBC radio's James O'Brien, which has since been described as a "car crash", the Ukip leader referred to a recent train journey he had taken in suburban London (one of the most multicultural cities on the planet, which also welcomes over 16 million tourists a year).

"It was a stopper going out and we stopped at London Bridge, New Cross, Hither Green. It was not until we got past Grove Park that I could hear English being audibly spoken in the carriage," he said. Presumably forgetting that his German wife probably speaks German when calling her German family back in Germany, as Mr O'Brien pointed out.

Problems with the NHS

When defending his comments about barring foreign nationals with HIV from NHS treatment, Mr Farage also added that the NHS was under strain from TB-suffering immigrants:

"Tuberculosis is costing the National Health Service a great deal of money, and much of that is coming from southern and eastern Europe."

Crime epidemics

Last September, the Ukip leader announced there was a "dark side" to immigration and that London was suffering from a "Romanian crime wave".

He also suggested in an interview with the aforementioned James O'Brien that he would feel concerned if a group of Romanian migrants moved in next door. When questioned what the difference was between Romanian and German migrants, he said "You know what the difference is".

He then blamed that outburst, which was criticised as a "racial slur", on being tired.

Youth unemployment

In a speech to Faversham grammar school in Kent in 2012, Mr Farage said: "We have 22 per cent of young people unemployed yet with open borders we are doing our own people out of jobs."

A squeeze on housing

The Ukip leader claimed on BBC Question Time in 2012 that rising house prices in London were due to "Greek money" fleeing the Eurozone.

He also claimed a lack of social housing in London was because of immigrants coming from Eastern Europe and "[getting] a national insurance number easily within a fortnight".

Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes and then a member of the audience who worked for a local council in London helpfully pointed out that it is actually far more difficult, nigh on impossible in fact, for a foreign national to arrive in Britain and get a council house within two weeks. They must be employed, and they do not get any priority over British citizens.

In this helpful explainer, Channel 4 also points out that a foreign national is highly unlikely to get a "right to reside" if they are unemployed - even if they have a national insurance number, something which would also take months to come through without a job.

Rising anti-Semitism

In yet another stint on LBC, Mr Farage condemned rising levels of anti-Semitism in Britain, saying: "What's fueling it is there are many more Muslim voices and some of them are deeply critical of Israel and some of them question Israel's right to exist."

An increase in GDP

In an interview with the International Business Times last month, Mr Farage said society had become too obsessed with a rise in GDP, and said: "It's actually not very hard to do that if you have uncontrolled immigration." Unbelievable, these people, coming over here, making our economy better.

Rising support for Ukip

The Ukip leader called the people of Ireland Britain's "kith and kin" and claimed that the party's rhetoric was increasingly chiming with the country's Irish communities.

"There is substantial and growing support for Ukip among people of Irish extraction and those who have themselves come from the Republic of Ireland to build a life in Britain," he said.

But then again, he does admit it's improved our food...

After touring the country before local elections last year, Farage said he met lots of people who had never had a problem with migration before. "It jollifies the place and the food’s better and all that," he told Andrew Marr.

Have we missed any? Let us know in the comments below...

More: Ukip release new single, immediately forced to deny it is racist

More: The 12 ways in which Ukip is the gift that keeps on giving