Tories could block Turkey’s bid to join EU

He also claimed Parliament will stop Turks moving to the UK if it were to join the union.

His comments come as the EU aims to strike a deal with Turkey to take back migrants who managed to cross the sea into Greece.

In return the state is calling on EU officials to speed up its application to join the union – as well as relaxing visa requirements for Turks.

Turkey is also pushing to double its EU funding to £4.6billion – with around £500million of the figure coming from the UK.

Official polls have revealed that roughly half of the British public is opposed to Turkey becoming a member of the EU.

Mr Osborne said: "We have a veto over whether Turkey joins or not.

"We have made it absolutely clear that we will not accept new member states to the European Union and give them unfettered free movement of people unless their economies are much closer in size and prosperity to ours.

He added that he did not think Turkey joining was "on the cards”.

But former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson warned the issue of Turkey joining the EU is of "real concern" and would "undoubtedly" influence the outcome of the EU referendum.

He said: "This is the lurking, huge iceberg under the surface. There is real concern about it."

"Letting in 77 million people who have a long, 750 mile, border with, sadly, incredibly unstable, it's hard to call them states, Syria and Iraq, because of the instability along the border,

"I think is obviously something of real concern to many people."

(dailystar.co.uk)