The Prime Minister has once again lied, misleading the public about the size of the EU’s population, Scram News can reveal.

He is also being widely criticised after vowing to stop EU migrants from treating the UK “as though it’s basically part of their own country” and making misleading claims on potential “democratically accountable” migration limits which would be introduced in a Tory government.

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Using rhetoric echoing the numbers-driven migration scaremongering of the Vote Leave campaign, Boris told Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News:

“You’ve seen quite a large number of people coming in from the whole of the EU — 580 million population — able to treat the UK as though it’s basically part of their own country and the problem with that is there has been no control at all and I don’t think that is democratically accountable.”

But the most recent population estimate of the European Union from the Eurostat website places its population (including the UK’s 66 million) at 513 million on 1st January 2019. In order for the figure to be 580 million, the EU’s population would have to increase by over 13%. That’s the equivalent of a population the size of the UK being added.

Current population projections of the EU28 estimate a peak of 529 million in 2045.

Further misleading claims have come to light after reports in The Times that “the Migration Advisory Committee would be given power to set the number of visas needed in key sectors, enjoying the same independence as the Bank of England has in setting interest rates.”

This is supposed to be an example of how a Conservative government would introduce “democratically accountable” migration controls. The Migration Advisory Committee already play a role in setting migration numbers as it adjusts the shortage occupation list. Non-EU migrants with jobs on the shortage occupation list have fewer barriers to acquiring visas.

But if the MAC were given further independence and powers, the six-member committee would set migration numbers in a less democratically accountable fashion.

Labour’s Jon Ashworth told Ridge: “He said the committee will be independent in the same way as the Bank of England is independent so he is misleading people when he says he is bringing immigration down because there will be no democratic control. There will be no accountability over any decision that any immigration minister makes because it will be handed over to a statutory independent committee.”

Meanwhile, Boris is being heavily criticised for the tone of his comments which suggest that the UK is not the country of EU migrants who have settled here and made Britain their home. There are 3.6 million EU migrants, including nearly 400,000 students.

David Lammy tweeted: “Breaks my heart to hear the UK Prime Minister spout this bigotry and hate to win votes. Blaming migrants for national government failures has a long and ugly history. If Boris Johnson wins on Thursday, racists and xenophobes will be emboldened.”

Meanwhile, Mollie Goodfellow pointed out the hypocrisy of his statement. She tweeted: “Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born in New York. He has lived in Washington, Conneticut and Brussels.”

Lies, bigotry, and hypocrisy. No wonder even Clare Foges, a Times columnist, has said: “The Conservatives have displayed no respect for the electorate”.