Jerzy Sarnecki, a professor of criminology at Stockholm University, told BuzzFeed News that Farage was talking "obvious rubbish" and "complete nonsense". "Someone is lying here," he said, "but it's not us."

Here's what's going on. Sweden does have a very high rate of reported rapes. "The official stats show very high rates," said Sarnecki. "And some politicians will claim that those rates are due to Muslim refugees."

But this is a very different thing from the actual number of rapes that take place. Firstly, the police record crime statistics differently. "We're kind of masochistic in Sweden, in the way we count our crimes," said Sarnecki.

Tim Newburn, a professor of criminology at the LSE, explained to BuzzFeed News: "Offences that come to the attention of the police in Sweden are always recorded as crimes.

"So if someone makes a report of rape, that will be recorded by the police as a crime. And even if later they discover there is insufficient evidence that such a crime has taken place, it will still remain on the stats."