Refusing to give a precise annual target because he claimed the public were sick of talks about caps and figures, Farage said between 20,000 and 50,000 work permits would be given to immigrant workers a year.

"I can't see us getting anywhere near 50,000 but - I will say this - there has been an obsession with caps, floors, ceilings, targets all through British politics. I don't think the public are interested or believe any of it," he said.

Farage said that only 10% of the 271,000 who moved to the UK to work in the year to September 2014 would have been allowed to enter under an Australian points based system.

Migrant workers would have to be earning more than £27,000 to be admitted to the country under UKIP, although exceptions would be made for jobs in demand such as nurses. Farage argued that a skilled worker visa system would help control both the quantity and quality of worker entering the UK.

Farage stated: "UKIP is putting forward a policy that will take immigration in Britain back to normal. Normal was from 1950 until the year 2000."

While the Conservatives have also said they want to get migration back to the levels seen in the 1980s and 1990s, Chancellor George Osborne accused Farage of "making it up as he goes along".

Source: Sharecast