Published: 2:01 PM November 20, 2019 Updated: 6:27 PM September 17, 2020

David Moreland, the UKIP candidate for North Norfolk, said that he's seen illegal immigrants arriving in the UK by paraglider. Picture: Archant - Credit: Archant

A UKIP candidate has suggested that illegal immigrants are coming into the country on paragliders and plans to set up beach observation points to stop them.

Former soldier David Moreland told the Eastern Daily Press that he believed immigrants are also being dropped off by boat at offshore wind farms and then continue the crossing to the UK under cover of darkness.

The UKIP candidate for North Norfolk told the EDP: "We are going to set up an observation point on a beach because apparently they are coming across on boats from the Amsterdam coastline.

"Halfway across the channel where we have two big wind farms they are getting dropped off at the wind farm and there are steps up and a platform where they can stand. Then they come over at night.

"They are also coming over on paragliders - I've seen it."

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He admitted the paragliders could also just be hobbyists.

An offshore wind industry spokeperson called Moreland's claims "nonsense", and there are no records of wind farms being used as drop-off points for immigrants.

Moreland, who has been a UKIP member for 19 years, said he advocates a points system and a tough approach to immigration.

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He also said he believed cuts to policing and the armed forces are not a result of austerity but instead was part of preparations to integrate the UK into an EU-wide army.

"The army, the navy, the air force, the police - we were told the reductions were made for financial reasons but they weren't. They were done to prepare us to integrate in to the EU system," he said.

He said that he loves European people, having spent time on the continent and having lived in Spain, but believes that EU nations are "sitting there with their fingers crossed hoping that the UK has got the balls to walk away".

"They want their countries back as well," he claimed. "They don't want to be governed by this huge political system. I believe that in this country we have been lied to, we've been cheated. I want to stand up for the country I swore allegiance to."

UKIP's most recent leader, Richard Braine, stood down after a tenure of less than three months in the post. Interim leader Pat Mountain has said she stands ready to "steer the good ship UKIP into clear waters", although the party is not standing a full slate of candidates in the general election.