I WONDER how many other readers are getting tired of the perpetual anti-European rhetoric of local UKIP activists.

Most recently they have been warning us of an invasion by 27 million Eastern Europeans.

Did anyone see it? I didn’t.

The truth is that the number of eastern European migrants arriving this month is actually lower than last year.

Latest statistics show there are approx 1.7 million European-born residents living in Britain, and they pay 30 per cent more in taxes than they take out of the system. Meanwhile 2.3 million Britons live and work in Europe.

UKIP wants to prevent all these British people, and future generations, from living and working where they want. The number of European migrants in Britain is dwarfed by the number of Commonwealth citizens here. But no one (yet) has argued we should withdraw from the Commonwealth. Perhaps they are the next target for a UKIP witch-hunt.

Independent research by South Bank University has shown that three million jobs in Britain depend on our membership of the EU – 6500 of those jobs are in north-west Hampshire.

All of these are at risk because of UKIP policies.

The vast majority of businesses in this country know our future prosperity lies in working with our neighbours to improve the EU. Major investors want us to remain active members of the EU. But UKIP know better – they want to resign from the club and still expect to have all the benefits. Why should our European partners agree?

We are forever told the EU is undemocratic – it can be improved and the European parliament is doing just this. UKIP MEPs wouldn’t be aware of this because they only go to half of the meetings and rarely participate.

No less than six of their 13 MEPs have left the party in the past four years. Despite this poor performance they still collect £79,000 each in salaries and claim over £800,000 in expenses.

When recently they were asked to back a move to save money by closing down the Strasbourg offices of EU they abstained. Not really the actions of a party looking after the best interests of British taxpayers.

Len Gates, Linton Drive, Andover