UKIP launched its new immigration policy for the general election on Wednesday inside an evangelical church in Westminster.
Although Nigel Farage insisted the "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" sign in the venue's reception area shouldn't be treated as official party policy – "We are a democratic party," he chuckled – the UKIP leader was undoubtedly preaching to the converted as the new policy was unveiled.
Almost every sentence ended in applause from the congregation of UKIP candidates and members, and journalists who asked difficult questions about the policy were hissed at as if they were nonbelievers.
Farage and UKIP migration spokesperson Steven Woolfe MEP announced that the party was abandoning the idea of a cap on migrants and would instead focus on bringing an end to the arrival of unskilled workers in the UK by using an "Australian-style points system".
Farage said the only way to take back control of the UK's immigration system was to leave the EU and have one passport queue for British people and one for the rest of the world.
"We cannot have a managed immigration policy and stay in the EU where we have an open door to half a billion people," he said. "We want to take back control of our borders and have a positive immigration policy – an Australian-style points system – where we can decide who comes to live and work in this country."
Farage – who claimed his party was "the most inclusive, open, and electric" in the UK – said UKIP's system would include the creation of a "migration control commission" that would keep watch over migration levels by calculating how many skilled workers Britain needed each year.
In doing so, Farage hopes Britain could be turned back into a country "at ease with itself" and where "our kids can play football together".
"Last year over 600,000 people settled in this country," he said. "We hold no prejudice against anyone on the grounds of their nationality, religion, or race, but Britain needs to take back control of her borders and control of our immigration policy, and only UKIP will argue for that in this general election."
Farage was followed by Woolfe, who told the audience about his mixed-race background before explaining how the system would work and predicting that UKIP will win May's general election.
"This is the most far-reaching change to immigration policy of any party in the past 20 years," said Woolfe. "We have thought long and hard about the technology, the system, and how it will be implemented.
"When we have a UKIP immigration policy, other countries will look in and say, 'There is one we will follow.'"
The speeches were followed by a session of questions from journalists that saw Gary Gibbon from Channel 4 – which recently aired the UKIP: The First 100 Days docudrama about the imagined disintegration of the UK under UKIP rule – roundly booed by the audience.
One UKIP member also blew a raspberry at Channel 5's Andy Bell when Bell suggested UKIP might prevent an EU referendum by taking votes away from the Conservatives.
Farage appeared to encourage the mistrust shown to the assembled journalists, and said he was "concerned" about media coverage of his party.
"Are we concerned about how our party has been consistently portayed in a never-ending series of docudramas that have stirred up an enmity towards UKIP?" Farage asked himself. "Yes, I am concerned about that – this is an open, inclusive political party."
The point that UKIP is an "inclusive" party was repeatedly stressed by both speakers, who appeared to be pre-empting criticism of the party's tough approach to immigration, and both men sent out warnings to those within the party who have an intolerant attitude towards immigrants.
"If you're a member of the BNP or the National Front you can never be a member of this political party," said Woolfe.
"If you make statements in the press or on Facebook or Twitter which are wholly against the principles of this party, we will get rid of you, and we will do so very quickly."