NIGEL Farage says he’s more cautious than some that Reform UK will win in Barnsley in May but admits the party have ‘every chance’ to take over at the town hall during a visit to the town on Wednesday.

His visit to the town comes just weeks after another Reform politician, Lee Anderson, was in Wombwell and the town centre.

This year’s local elections take place on May 7 with the town set to hold its first all-out cycle.

It means that all 63 council seats in each of the 21 wards will be up for election.

And with campaigning ramping up for political parties across the borough, the Reform leader delivered a key speech in the town on Wednesday evening.

Asked how confident he is that Reform UK will win big in the town next month, he told the Chronicle: “I’ll be honest, I haven’t been to Ladbrokes yet.

“I know that we as a party have a very well-structured branch here, with very keen candidates, who are working the ground hard.

“And if there's one thing we can learn from the Lib Dems, it's where you have really good active ground campaigns, it makes a massive difference.

“I just think the party in Barnsley is very, very well organised.

“I also think that Barnsley has a very strong sense of identity.

“Barnsley knows what it is, and maybe that family, community, country message that we push just seems to resonate.

“And if you look even at the last general election, you know, you'll find that in Barnsley, we were scoring just over 30 per cent of the vote in a couple of the seats.

“Labour were about 48-50.

“And if you've even taken the swing in national polls since then, it's realistic to say we're up ten – and it’s more realistic to say they’re down ten.

“So even on the national swing, you can see why it would be somewhere we're going to compete.

“But I think the local effort is going to make the difference.”

He then asked the crowd if they were going to win here in May and was greeted with a large cheer, and added: “I’ll be a little bit more cautious but I think we’ve got every chance.”