UKIP leader Nigel Farage defended his stance on immigration after meeting a lowskilled Eastern European worker during a factory tour in Clacton.

Mr Farage was visiting hinge manufacturer Nico to speak of the need to boost manufacturing and improve skills among British workers.

He met Hungarian Ivan Loncsarevity, 62, who has lived in Colchester for five years after travelling to the UK for work.

Mr Loncsarevity could not answer questions, because he does not speak any English, but was described by colleagues as relatively low-skilled.

Asked whether Mr Loncsarevity should be working in the UK, Mr Farage said: “Ukip has never said anyone should leave the country, so the question is entirely baseless.

“One of the big problems we’ve got in engineering is a real shortage of young people studying it to go into trades such as this, which is regrettable.

“We’ve got rid of technical colleges and encouraged more and more young people to go to university and study degrees, which are not directly linked to industry such as this.

“If there’s no British person trained to do that job, then that says more about us than them.”

Steve Dalton, the firm’s manufacturing manager, confirmed the company needed to look to Eastern Europe to fill a skills gap and on occasion had flown potential employees in from Poland.

Mr Dalton said he was not a Ukip supporter, but did not oppose the party’s proposal of an Australian-style points system designed to limit the number of immigrants.

He said: “There needs to be some controls, but presumably, if we needed to fill a skills gap, we would still be able to do that under such a system.”

The company employs 130 people, including six migrants from Eastern Europe.

Gillian Hagger, finance director, said: “A lot of industries in the UK need migrant workers.

“The area we’re in means we’ve got a large pool to recruit from, but sometimes we find skills are limited.

“On those occasions we have had to look further afield, including flying interviewees in from Poland.”

Brian Webb, tool room supervisor at Nico, said: “Having Mr Farage’s group here was great publicity for the company.

“Not many people realise the size of our company – we are one of the biggest employers in Clacton.

“They showed a real interest as I showed them around and seemed quite knowledgeable about the industry.”

Later, Mr Farage visited the town’s Copping Community Centre with the party’s parliamentary candidate Douglas Carswell.

Supporters were expecting to see Mr Carswell arrive to launch campaigns for district council candidates Mary Newton and Len Sibbald, but shocked residents were greeted by Mr Farage and a media circus.

Sue Shearing, Clacton Ukip chairman, said: “The visit was such a great boost for all of us.”

Mr Farage and Mr Carswell revealed Ukip’s election pledges, including giving voters the power to trigger a by-election if they think their MP is not up to the job, as well as regular national referendums on big issues.