Nigel Farage speaks in Barnsley just weeks before local elections in South Yorkshire
The Reform UK leader has been campaigning across Yorkshire
Reform UK’s leader visited Barnsley and said a vote for his party at the upcoming local elections is a vote to end Keir Starmer’s premiership.
Nigel Farage was greeted by a round of applause this afternoon (April 22) as he spoke to residents and Reform UK candidates for what he described as his biggest election speech.
He had visited Bradford and Kirklees earlier in the day while on the campaign trail, as local elections are set to take place across the country in two weeks’ time.
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On May 7, one third of Sheffield’s council seats will be up for grabs, while Barnsley is facing an all out election that will see every single councillor face the polls.
Standing behind a lectern with the phrase ‘Get Starmer Out’ written across it, Mr Farage spoke about what he described as failures in the current Labour national government.
“It’s just a feeling that we have a totally incompetent Prime Minister, a deeply unpatriotic Prime Minister,” he said, describing the mood of those he’s spoken to on the streets.
He went on to criticise the Conservatives, saying that they are now a ‘wasted vote’ and will face catastrophic losses at the upcoming local elections.
“Only Reform has the strength, the power, the depth and the geographical spread to beat Labour, not just on May 7, but as we head towards the next general election whenever that may be,” Mr Farage claimed.
Elections in May will not impact MPs or the national government, but instead represent local councils, who manage matters like rubbish collection, roads and planning applications.
The Star took the opportunity to ask the Reform UK leader how his councillors would deal with plans to modernise industries across South Yorkshire, after he criticised the impact of deindustrialisation and what he called ‘the cult of net zero’ across the north of England.
“The country needs both,” he said in response.
“It’s madness to close down your industries, to have products now produced in India or China, those products then shipped back to the UK.
“We haven’t cut carbon emissions, we’ve exported carbon emissions, and we’ll still need traditional manufacturers here.
“But, equally, the 21st century is here and it’s an age of tech, an age of AI, it’s an age of digital assets.”
Barnsley has been pitched as a ‘tech town’ in new plans that would see artificial intelligence introduced into public services with hopes of creating jobs with the support of companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe and Google.
However, Mr Farage said that energy will be the main problem holding these back, claiming that data centres require more power than traditional heavy duty manufacturing plants.
“The Government can talk about tech hubs, the Government can talk about data centres - none of them can be competitive with the highest industrial energy prices in the world,” he added.
“I promise you none of them will happen at scale and it’s where net zero, our insane policies, they’re not just destroying traditional manufacturing, they’re keeping us out of the race into the 21st century and it’s an absolute disaster at every single level.”
Polls will open in Sheffield and Barnsley on May 7, with ballots set to be counted the following day.
The Star will be providing live coverage on South Yorkshire’s elections on the day.