Proposed changes to the EU rules on migration and asylum have been described as “a historic U-turn” by Nigel Farage.

The GB News presenter said: “It’s a historic U-turn, isn’t it? In 2015, they put in place the EU’s asylum policy. I was there. I was there next to Mr Juncker in the European Parliament and basically what it said was anyone that crossed the Mediterranean and stepped foot on EU soil could stay.

“I warned them, I said it was lunacy, I said millions would come, and sure enough they have. The political implications – I’ve seen a very, very dramatic rise of parties of what we call the populist right.

“Is that any surprise, given cities like Malmo, for example, have been completely transformed by vast numbers of young men coming from entirely different cultures? And now they’re panicking.”

In a discussion with Emily Carver and Tom Harwood he continued: “This week, we’ve had a big U-turn on separate environmental targets put in place by the European Commission. Now it’s migration.

“It’s ‘we’re gonna get tough’ and all of this is because, as we head towards the European elections which take place between June 6 and June 9 this year, at the moment, Eurosceptic parties are topping the polls in nine countries, and are second or third in another nine.

“This is Brussels, this is national leaders saying, ‘we understand your concerns, we’re getting tough’. Is it going to help them, is it going to stop the rise of the populist right? I doubt it very much indeed.”

He added: “Migration is one of those things that threatens the very existence of the European Union, and even Schengen, this idea that we can move freely between countries without stopping our car, without showing a passport…even that’s under threat.

“We’ve seen times when in the last couple of years borders have been put back, so this question is really existential for the future of the European political project.”