Eva Van Housen (pictured showing off the swastika tattooed on her chest), has been distributing leaflets by Vote Leave, the main pro-Brexit group, in Leeds

The campaign for Britain to leave the EU has been infiltrated by dozens of far-Right extremists with racist views, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Our investigation has uncovered evidence that former members of the English Defence League, the National Front and the British National Party have attached themselves to the ‘Leave’ movements. Those who have hijacked the Brexit campaigns include:

A former EDL leader who was jailed after attacks on police. He posed with a pro-Brexit Ukip banner alongside the gravestone of the notorious Kray twins;

A former BNP official and his swastika-tattooed girlfriend, who have been distributing leaflets printed by Boris Johnson’s official anti-EU campaign;

A former deputy of ex-National Front leader Nick Griffin – the man has been photographed with a pro-Brexit Tory MP at an anti-EU event;

An ex-BNP activist, who attended a rally during which pro-Nazis sneered at Holocaust victims, canvassed for Vote Leave in Surrey.

The exposé came as David Cameron claimed that Boris Johnson and his Vote Leave allies know Britain’s economy will suffer if we leave the EU – but are trying to cover it up.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, the Prime Minister admits he gets ‘p***** off’ with Brussels at times, but warns that if we leave, France and other nations will punish the UK for the way Brexiteers have portrayed the EU as ‘the evil empire.’

Eva Van Housen posed in front of a Nazi flag, and took a selfie on her Twitter profile

Eva Van Housen (pictured, left) is dating Mark Collett, who was the subject of the TV documentary Young, Nazi and Proud. She also posted this image of another Nazi tattoo on her leg (right)

However, he moved to heal his bitter rift with leading Vote Leave Tories Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel by saying they would all be given key Government roles if the Remain camp wins the referendum on June 23.

Vote Leave leaders last night disowned the far-Right activists who have latched on to their campaign. There is no suggestion they are responsible for the extremists’ conduct.

A spokesman said: ‘Unfortunately there is little we can do about undesirable characters buying our merchandise and distributing it. We do not want to be associated in any way with such people.’

Asked about extremists trying to hijack Nigel Farage’s Leave.eu, its founder, businessman Arron Banks, replied by email, saying: ‘LOL [Laugh Out Loud]. Keep it going.’

Tory and Labour supporters of the Remain campaign last night joined forces to condemn the pro-Brexit extremists.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna said: ‘The hate-filled politics peddled by the likes of the BNP and EDL should have no place in this referendum campaign.’

He added: ‘When fascists and racists are openly and proudly displaying Vote Leave branding, it tarnishes not just their campaign but British politics as a whole.’

Conservative MP Alok Sharma said: ‘This investigation exposes the worrying extent to which far-Right sympathisers and activists have infiltrated the Leave campaigns.

‘Vote Leave need to take decisive action to root out the far-Right supporters their campaign appears to be attracting.’

EXPOSED: The far-Right extremists tarring the Leave campaign including a former BNP official, an ex-EDL leader jailed for attacking police and a former deputy of ex-National Front head Nick Griffin

As leaders of the official Brexit battle charge, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been careful to distance their calls for new immigration curbs from unsavoury associations with the far-Right.

But despite their best efforts, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed that the Leave camp has been infiltrated by scores of activists holding extreme, racist views.

Racist internet ‘trolls’ targeted Sky TV newsman Faisal Islam after he grilled Gove in a TV debate on Friday, with one calling him an ‘ignorant anti-Brexit Muslim’.

And this newspaper has shocking examples of Nazi sympathisers and violent criminals campaigning for an ‘Out’ vote on June 23.

Self-confessed Muslim-hater Andrew Edge, an English Defence League organiser who was jailed for 21 months for his part in a violent demonstration in Birmingham, visits the Kray twins' grave

Andrew Edge carries the same Vote to Leave sign as he had at the Krays' grave when he posed with UKIP leader Nigel Farage

Among them are Andrew Edge, a prominent member of the far-Right English Defence League, who was jailed after an EDL protest when bricks and bottles were thrown at police. He posed with a ‘We want our country back: Vote to Leave’ banner next to the graves of the notorious gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

Edge, formerly the EDL leader in Stockport, appeared with the Ukip-produced sign at the Krays’ gravestone in Chingford, Essex. He has also been photographed with Ukip leader Nigel Farage holding the same sign, and with fellow Brexit campaigner Kate Hoey, the Labour MP and former Sports Minister.

Edge declares on a Facebook page ‘I hate muzzys [Muslims]’, and when he was led from the dock after being convicted of violent disorder in 2014, he chanted: ‘EDL, EDL, EDL.’ He was jailed for 21 months.

Eva Van Housen (second left) handing out leaflets for the Vote Leave campaign in Leeds

In Leeds, former senior BNP official Mark Collett and his girlfriend Eva Van Housen, who has a swastika tattooed on her chest, have been distributing leaflets by Vote Leave, the main pro-Brexit group.

Collett, a former chairman of the BNP youth wing, handed out the material from a stall with Ms Van Housen, whose tattoos also include a quote from Adolf Hitler.

Collett was the subject of a TV documentary – Young, Nazi And Proud – in which he said Aids was a ‘friendly disease’ because it mainly afflicted black people and gays.

He said: ‘The Jews have been thrown out of every country, including England.

‘Let’s face it, when it happens that many times it’s not just persecution: there’s no smoke without fire.’

In 2006, he and former BNP leader Nick Griffin appeared in court accused of inciting racial hatred. They were cleared after a retrial.

He has promoted his work for Vote Leave on his Facebook site, saying he had held a ‘successful’ stall ‘with veteran Nationalists’, adding: ‘If you want to help us, get in touch. Vote Leave will send you everything you need.’

Unlike their Scottish and Welsh counterparts, ‘English nationalism’ has developed into a term used by far-Right anti-immigration groups.

After Vote Leave was made aware of Collett’s far-Right links, it asked the couple to stop campaigning – a plea that was ignored.

Last night, speaking at his Leeds flat emblazoned with Vote Leave posters, Collett said: ‘Leaving the EU has always been central to my political beliefs. It is absolutely natural that I should campaign to leave.’

He added that Tory members of Vote Leave had no right to ban him from their campaign. He also defended the BNP, saying it had 50 councillors and two MEPs. ‘I will continue with my Brexit campaign. It is something I have always been very passionate about,’ he added.

Ms Van Housen, 22, said: ‘We are not ashamed of our beliefs – we are proud of them and completely stand by them.

‘We will continue handing out leaflets and we have got a lot left.’

Former BNP national organiser Richard Edmonds was pictured canvassing for Vote Leave in Croydon, Surrey, on the National Front London Facebook page.

Edmonds, 73, was exposed by The Mail on Sunday last year for attending a pro-Nazi meeting in London during which Holocaust deniers sniggered at the mention of ‘ashes rising from the death camps’ crematoria’.

He was jailed for in 1994 for his part in a savage attack on a black man and his white girlfriend outside a pub in East London. A court heard that Edmonds and a group of other BNP thugs spat at the couple and shouted ‘n***** lover’ and ‘monkey’ at them, before Edmonds threw a beer glass and his accomplices ‘glassed’ the man’s face, punched and kicked him.

Last night, Mr Edmonds said he was campaigning for Brexit as ‘it was absolutely vital people vote to leave’. He maintained he was innocent of the racist attack for which he was convicted.

Richard Edmonds (third from right) is pictured holding a Vote Leave sign in Croydon, south London. He was exposed by the Mail on Sunday for attending a meeting where Jews were called 'the enemy'. Edmonds has stood for the National Front and BNP and has been jailed for a racist assault. Kevin Layzell (far right) is a former leading figure in the youth wing of the BNP

When troubled Irish singer Sinead O'Connor went missing in the US last month one EDL supporter 'joked' he hoped she was 'being tortured and raped in a mud hut somewhere'. This fellow supporter who backs Leave.eu replied: 'Hahaha. Brilliant'

The rival anti-EU campaign, Leave.eu, fronted by Nigel Farage, has also attracted extremists who joked about the ‘rape’ of Irish singer Sinead O’Connor after she briefly went missing in the United States last month.

One EDL supporter, who brandishes a Leave.eu badge on his Facebook profile picture and whose site is covered with pro-Brexit literature, was responding to a fellow EDL member who said he hoped O’Connor was ‘being tortured and raped in a mud hut somewhere’.

The supporter, who we are not identifying as we were unable to contact him, wrote: ‘Hahaha. Brilliant.’

After the EDL member replied: ‘Who the f*** would want to rape that?’, another member said a ‘Moslem’ would ‘f*** anything’.

The Brexit cause has also been backed by white supremacist internet forums used by racist groups such as Stormfront, set up in the US by a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Stormfront describes itself as ‘the voice of the new, embattled White minority’ and its website includes a forum urging subscribers to leaflet for an ‘Out’ vote.

Graham Williamson (pictured, on the far left) is seen campaigning for Vote Leave in Romford, Essex with pro-Brexit MP Tory Andrew Rosindell (centre, in red striped tie)

One member, whose profile is illustrated with a picture of Hitler, says ‘leaving the EU should be a given to any white native of Britain’.

The forum, which features a picture of Tory MP Peter Bone distributing leaflets for another Brexit group, Grassroots Out, includes a user called ‘EnglishAryanPride’ ad-vising: ‘Vote Leave are the main guys running the show.’ There is no suggestion that Mr Bone is aware of this.

Another contributor, Citizen12, writes: ‘Diversity and Multiculturalism are White Genocide.’ The same motto has been adopted by far-Right EDL splinter group, the North West Infidels, which has been displaying ‘diversity = white genocide’ banners next to Vote Leave slogans.

In February, the ‘Infidels’ clashed with anti-fascist protesters in Liverpool, leading to 33 arrests.

The group has also been linked to online hate campaigns against anti-fascist campaigners, including Lola Carr, a mother of four attacked by EDL members after an anti-austerity protest in London. Afterwards, online ‘infidel’ supporters threatened to burn her house down, throw acid in her face, and rape her 15-year-old daughter.

Graham Williamson, a former deputy to Nick Griffin in the National Front, has campaigned for Leave and was pictured in Romford, Essex, with pro-Brexit local Tory MP Andrew Rosindell.

Williamson, who styled himself as part of the ‘political soldier’ wing of the Front, left the organisation to found a think-tank called Third Way, influenced by the ideology of Roberto Fiore, an Italian neo-fascist.

Guitarist Christopher Knight plays at neo-Nazi gigs and supports the racist Blood & Honour group. He was seen campaigning with Vote Leave

Christopher Knight (centre, in sunglasses) is seen with Vote Leave campaigners

Far-Right campaigner Christopher Knight belongs to a neo-Nazi outfit which promotes rock gigs and was pictured on Twitter posing with Vote Leave campaigners in Newcastle – all of whom had their faces blacked out.

Knight is linked to Blood And Honour, an umbrella organisation for racist groups across Europe. Last year, the group caused outrage when it staged an Adolf Hitler bus tour from Hungary to his birthplace in Austria.

One activist called for Syrians to be massacred, while its internet site linked to a mocked-up picture of a dinghy being fired on by a warship.

A Vote Leave spokesman disowned the extremists, saying: ‘Unfortunately there is little we can do about undesirable characters buying our merchandise and distributing it. We do not want to be associated in any way with such people.’

Asked about extremists trying to use Leave.eu, its founder, businessman Arron Banks, replied by email stating: ‘LOL [Laugh Out Loud]. Keep it going’.

The Mail on Sunday made several unsuccessful attempts to reach Mr Edge, Mr Williamson and Mr Knight.

Since publication, the British National Party has asked to point out that the individuals mentioned in connection with the BNP are no longer members and their views are not those of the BNP. Graham Williamson was a member of the National Front, not the BNP.