I start from the belief that we are richer together - as a society, as people and economically.

In a time of enforced austerity, it might seem strange to talk about being richer, about the benefits of immigration and migration, but it is essential if we are going to defeat the threat of a growing Ukip.

Migration was not the cause of the recession - the real culprit was the collapse of the banks and their subsequent bailout.

The solution is not austerity and the scapegoating of the victims of the recession.

That is why I will be at the UN Anti-Racism Day parade and rally tomorrow, welcoming the many communities that enrich this country.

Ukip is deliberately attempting to convince sections of the electorate that immigration is one of the main causes of the British economic crisis.

Its populist xenophobic agenda is being adopted by mainstream politicians and media to drag British politics to the right and place overt racism centre stage. 

The unrelenting attacks on migrants have succeeded in finding daily echoes in large sections of the media.

Nigel Farage was using deliberately provocative hyperbole when he said that he finds it "uncomfortable" to hear languages apart from English on a train.

In the most successful cosmopolitan city in the world, it is a crude attempt to win support from those who want to believe in the myth of a "golden age," when the British empire dominated the world and black people could be exploited but not seen.

In a desperate to shore up their vote and avoid the split in their electoral base that Ukip threatens to cause, the Tories' political strategy adviser Lynton Crosby plans to regularly announce policies against migrants through to the general election.

David Cameron has already pledged an in/out referendum on Europe if the Tories win in 2015. But they will learn that you cannot out-Ukip Ukip.

Labour needs to recognise this. It will come under increasing pressure from those who argue that future electoral success lies in winning over voters by "admitting" that the last Labour government "got it wrong" on immigration and that multiculturalism has failed.

In reality, "it was the economy, stupid." The Western world's economy imploded and those not to blame have been paying the price ever since. Xenophobia is the fire that is being stoked up in the hope that ordinary people will not notice the unchecked vandalism that is wreaking havoc on our public services.

Rather like the Tea Party, Ukip is a multimillionaire-sponsored reactionary creation. It should not be seen as a working-class party.

Polling data since the 2010 general election shows that as the Ukip vote goes up the Tory vote goes down. Only 8 per cent of Ukip voters previously voted Labour.

Some working-class support for the Tory Party has been a feature of British politics since the creation of Benjamin Disraeli's strategy to win elections by having a mass appeal based on imperialism, paternalism and social reform. But today social reform has been replaced by austerity.

Farage has become a fake man of the people, offering a toxic "pick and mix" of racism, xenophobia, sexism and homophobia.

He has no policies to overcome the economic crisis in the interests of the vast majority. However, Ukip does have the ability to divide and confuse the opposition to austerity by legitimising racism and Islamophobia.

A failure to successfully confront this agenda will only serve to set the scene for a reinvented far-right - fascist in all but name - similar to those parties stalking the electorates of Hungary and France.

Our challenge is to prevent any advance this agenda might make in this May's European elections turning into a strong reactionary pole in British politics - as is happening in many European countries - and stop a right-wing populist movement becoming a key player in British politics.

Every step we take in celebrating and defending our multicultural society is one more barrier to the far-right. 

We need to create the strongest possible unity of those opposed to racism, with the labour movement and all those communities under attack at its heart.

This means challenging all forms of discrimination - in particular we need to build on the hard-fought-for achievements of the Lawrence family to roll back institutional racism. The constant revelations in the Metropolitan Police show how far we have still to go.

The growth of Islamophobia, anti-semitism and attacks on Roma and other European migrants makes it very important that we proudly say: "Yes to diversity."

Part of this is to defend and respect the religious freedoms of Muslims and other faiths and "non-believers" and celebrate the richness of our multicultural society.

We cannot be multicultural within our borders if we do not defend the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees and expose the lies and myths that project them as a threat.

As Robin Cook said, "We must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves."

Tomorrow's Stand up to Racism and Fascism rally and demonstration will show the unity and politics we need to prevent the far-right becoming a part of the political landscape as it is in far too many other European countries.

Hugh Lanning is Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Canterbury and Whitstable and former deputy general secretary of PCS