“Australians are like British people but with balls of steel, can-do brains, tiny hearts and whacking great gunships.”

Leon Neal / Getty Images

Ian Gavan / Getty Images

Farage, whose right-wing UKIP party is hoping to substantially increase its vote in next month's UK election, has put Australia's migration model at the centre of his plans to control who comes to the UK from around the European Union.

On Sunday he blamed EU leaders for the current situation, which has seen hundreds of people die in the Mediterranean this year trying to flee war-torn Libya.

The latest disaster saw 650 people drown off the Libyan coast yesterday.

At the UKIP party launch on the outskirts of London last week, Farage laid out plans for an "Australian-style points based immigration system", which he argues would crackdown on low-skilled migrants coming to the UK.

The Australian system would grant visas to skilled migrants and takes into account their age, work experience and health.

View Entire List ›