One of the leading groups campaigning for Britain to leave the EU has been accused of xenophobia after it published a video narrated by Donald Trump that appeared to compare immigrants to a “vicious snake”.

The video was promoted by Leave.EU – which is funded by Ukip’s biggest donor, Arron Banks, and is supported by Nigel Farage – alongside a message saying: “Donald Trump’s take on immigration … Vote to Leave the vicious snake that is the EU on June 23”.

The video is soundtracked by Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, reading the lyrics of a song called Vicious Snake, about a woman who takes in a snake that fatally bites her.

Trump’s voice, and ominous music, is played over footage of migrants rushing over a wall, and crowds in France, Greece and Hungary.

The video, which was posted on Facebook on Monday, was immediately condemned by leading remain campaigners. Labour’s Chuka Umunna, the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, and the Tory MP Nicholas Soames, have co-signed a letter urging the official Vote Leave campaign to press for the video’s withdrawal.

Click to watch the video posted on Facebook by Leave.EU Click to watch the video posted on Facebook by Leave.EU

“I am writing to urge you to publicly condemn the latest Leave.EU video and join me in calling for it to be withdrawn,” the letter says. “If you do not, people will conclude that Vote Leave is complicit in a campaign that is increasingly inflammatory in tone.

“Depicting whole nationalities negatively to a Donald Trump voice-over – a man whose immigration policy is to ‘build a wall’ – is surely beneath us all …

“Border control and the economic implications of immigration are rightly central to this debate over Britain and Europe, but this early and ugly descent in to xenophobia must be stopped.”



The Trump video row is not the first time leave campaigners have been criticised over videos about immigration. Ukip was accused of “baseless scaremongering” after it used a party political broadcast on the BBC to warn of the dangers of Turkey joining the EU, highlighting its Muslim population and claiming 15 million of its citizens could migrate to the UK.

The advert, which aired in February, provoked a backlash from pro-EU campaigners and MPs, as well as allegations of Islamophobia from Twitter users, some of whom said they were planning to report the party to Ofcom.

That four-minute broadcast warned of the number of “Islamic imam schools” in Turkey, highlighted the shrinking number of Christians, and showed a succession of images of minarets and women wearing headscarves.