David Cameron has hit out at “inappropriate” attempts to link the Belgian terror attacks to the debate on Britain’s future in the EU.
The Prime Minister criticised Ukip for seeking to blame free movement rules for the rise of extremist attacks.
After chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committe the PM said he had spoken to his Belgian counterpart to offer the UK’s condolences and made clear he had “offered every support” in dealing with the attack.
The atrocity “could just as well be attacks in Britain or France or Germany or elsewhere in Europe and we need to stand together against these appalling terrorists and make sure they can never win”, he told reporters in Downing Street.
Asked about Ukip’s response to the attacks, he said: “I think it is not appropriate at this time to make any of those sorts of remarks.
“What we should be doing today is expressing our sympathies and condolences with the people of Belgium who have suffered this appalling terrorist attack.
“We in this country know what that feels like because of what we experienced in 7/7. We saw what happened in Paris.
“This is the latest terrorist outrage and today is a day for sympathy and condolence, for enhancing our own security, for working with our own colleagues and offering them every help we can and making sure we are very clear that we will never let these terrorists win.”
He said there would be an increased police presence at ports, airports and railway stations but that the overall threat level had not been raised at this stage from “severe”.
