A UKIP MEP says figures which show 178,000 people have arrived from Eastern Europe strengthen the case for leaving the European Union.

North West MEP and UKIP migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said the number of people moving to Britain, equivalent to the population of Peterborough, is “simply unsustainable”.

He added: “It just goes to show that UKIP were absolutely right and the only party to talk honestly on the subject.

“What UKIP has always said is that we cannot have open door migration to countries with vastly different economies.

“This is borne out in the fact that 178,000 of the total 186,000 people to arrive here from Europe came from the poorer enlargement countries of the former Soviet bloc.”