Nigel Farage has claimed Cologne-style mass sex attacks could happen in Britain if it stays in the European Union.

The UKIP leader told a 500-plus crowd at a pro-Brexit rally in Newport, South Wales, yesterday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made a big mistake in lifting restrictions on Syrian refugees last summer.

Public support for asylum seekers in Germany has dropped following allegations that hundreds of women were groped, robbed and intimidated at Cologne's central station on New Year's Eve.

Speaking at the cross-party Grassroots Out event, Mr Farage said: "We've been through a hundred years of female emancipation and liberation ... and now the mistakes of Mrs Merkel are now threatening all of that.

"What we saw outside that train station in Cologne on New Year's Eve was truly and genuinely shocking.

"I am not saying that we are not immune from such problems in this country.

"But to me, if you allow the unlimited access of huge numbers of young males into the European continent who come from countries where women are at best are second class citizens, don't be surprised if scenes that we saw in Cologne don't happen more often."

He continued: "For goodness sake, do we want those young men within five years to have EU passports and to be able to come to our country and to reverse a hundred years of female liberation and to change our entire way of life? Surely the answer must be no.

"It is the job of the British government to make our own laws, to control our own borders and it’s about time we started putting the interests of our own people first."

Mr Farage took to the stage in a marquee at the Rodney Parade stadium to a standing ovation before drawing laughs from the crowd after mocking pro-EU campaigners as "Remainions".

He accused Prime Minister David Cameron and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones of scaremongering over what would happen to the UK if it left the EU before calling George Osborne the "worst Chancellor in modern times".