Ex-MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove said the European Union’s response to the influx of migrants has been ‘hesitant’, ‘unsure’ and ‘perverse’

Europe risks importing the ‘terrorist virus’ and sparking ‘popular uprisings’ if it can’t control its borders, a former spy chief warned last night.

Ex-MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove said the European Union’s response to the influx of migrants has been ‘hesitant’, ‘unsure’ and ‘perverse’.

This failure was fuelling the risk of the resurgence of far-Right movements, he said.

He added that ‘millions’ of migrants from the Middle East and Africa are set to head to the continent in the next five years – many of whom will then be able to take advantage of Brussels’ free movement rules.

And he said it was inevitable that a few of these would carry what he called a ‘terrorist virus’.

He heavily criticised the EU bid to solve the migrant crisis by offering visa-free access to millions of Turks, saying it was ‘like storing gasoline next to the fire one is trying to extinguish’

Sir Richard rejected David Cameron’s claim that Brexit would make the UK less safe, saying there would actually be ‘some security gains if we left’.

‘High levels of immigration, particularly from the Middle East and freedom of movement inside the EU make effective border control more difficult,’ he said. ‘Terrorists can exploit these circumstances, as we saw recently in their movement between Brussels and Paris and to and from Syria. With large numbers of people on the move, a few will inevitably carry the terrorist virus.’

And he warned: ‘In the real world there are no miraculous James Bond-style solutions. Human tides are irresistible unless the gravitational pull that causes them is removed.’ Pointing to the resurgence of the far-Right in Austria, he warned: ‘If Europe cannot act together to persuade a significant majority of its citizens that it can gain control of its migratory crisis then the EU will find itself at the mercy of a populist uprising, which is already stirring.’

He described the Brexit referendum as ‘the first roll of the dice in a bigger geopolitical game’, adding: ‘I still do not find convincing the argument that we would be less secure if we left the EU.

‘In or out, the difference would be marginal with some security gains if we left. The UK would be its own master in its own house but European counter-terrorist co-ordination including the UK would continue as it has done before.’

Sir Richard was head of MI6 – a role known as ‘M’ – from 1999 to 2004, meaning he was in charge for the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the Iraq War two years later.

Speaking as part of the BBC’s World on the Move day, he said: ‘The numbers of immigrants into Europe over the next five years from the Middle East and Africa could well run into the millions and once established inside the EU these new arrivals will have freedom of movement across the 28 member countries.

‘The geopolitical impact is set to reshape Europe’s political landscape as those citizens who feel, rationally or not, that their interests and cultural identity are threatened assert their influence.

‘This has already happened in Austria with the resurgence of the defunct Freedom Party. Other extreme Right populist parties in other European countries will follow.’

Sir Richard rejected David Cameron’s claim that Brexit would make the UK less safe, saying there would actually be ‘some security gains if we left’

Sir Richard also criticised the EU response as ‘hesitant and unsure’, saying: ‘For the EU to offer visa-free access to 75million Turks to stem the flow of migrants across the Aegean seems perverse, like storing gasoline next to the fire one is trying to extinguish.’

The failure of the EU to respond effectively shows that it ‘may well have outlived its historical role’.

He said that, unlike the UK, the EU has ‘no operational counter-terrorist capability to speak of’ – meaning that claims about Britain being less safe outside the EU carried little validity.

And he said the European Court of Human Rights had ‘hampered the Government’s handling of some terrorist related suspects’.