Steven Woolfe (EFDD). – Mr President, the situation in the Mediterranean is indeed dire. For those millions of people who are suffering because they are leaving the areas of Syria and Afghanistan where war and deprivation is affecting them, that is clear.

But once again we have a failed EU policy that will have an impact on the United Kingdom. The EU’s policy here today has rejected the idea that open borders, including Schengen, have been a major problem. They have rejected the idea that Angela Merkel’s open welcome has caused millions of people to feel that they should come to the EU and they have rejected the idea that Australia’s solutions have meant fewer people dying.

But what they have decided to say, in taking this one bull by the horns, is that there is a real need for a permanent mandatory Union-wide resettlement programme with mandatory control and distribution across the European Union. If Britain wants to avoid this in the future, it must vote to leave the European Union on 23 June. Otherwise it will also be dragged in.