Although there has been a growing anti-immigration sentiment in Europe over the last few years, with parties such as UKIP making immigration the centerpiece of their political manifestos, public opinion in Europe appeared to shift last week following harrowing images of Syrian children who had drowned in the Mediterranean during the perilous journey to Europe, often made in unseaworthy boats or inflatables.  While those images, and the recent deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated in a truck in Austria, have prompted a more compassionate stance in Europe and particularly Germany, the U.K. public is split on how the government should help.  A poll carried out by ComRes between Friday and Sunday for the BBC program "Newsnight" showed that while 40 percent of the 1,000 people questioned were in favor of the U.K. government allowing more refugees from Syria and Libya to come and live in the country, 31 percent said fewer should be allowed to come.  Farage told CNBC he was also skeptical about the migrant status of many of those coming to Europe, saying that many migrants -- and particularly those from some African countries -- were not "refugees," given that the definition of a refugee is someone who has fled war, persecution, or natural disaster.  Read MoreBy numbers: Europe's migrant crisis  "People are very skeptical and they're right to say, 'Are these people refugees?'," he said. "We've got a tide of humanity coming over the Mediterranean…and there are clearly some cases that are genuine refugees, but an awful lot that aren't."  "This country has a tradition going back several centuries of offering refuge to people in real fear for their lives…But most people that have come to Europe in the last year have been from Somalia, Mauritania, Mali and Nigeria, these are not refugees – that is why British public opinion is so skeptical."
The leader of the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) has warned that Britain "cannot cope" with more migrants.