What you think about Farage's policy on immigration

It’s blustery and busy in Bury.

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The ‘world famous’ market has brought coachloads of punters in by the dozen, undeterred by the downpours predicted.

Just away from the hubbub sat on a bench opposite the Millgate shopping centre is Sandra, a retired psychiatric nurse.

“It’s headline-grabbing,” she smiles when asked what she made of Reform’s announcement. Then, she pauses. After a moment's thought, she goes on: “In principle, it will be hard to get it off the ground.

“I think immigration has become too convenient [for migrants].

“To a certain extent it has become a scapegoat [for other problems], but it’s not fitting the remit when it was created in 1945, when there were postwar refugees - if they are coming from France, which is not a dangerous country, that’s quite the issue.”

Ultimately, Sandra, 67, said she would not support Mr Farage at an election, but agreed more needed to be done by Labour. Hers was a view shared by Bradley Hornby, 24, who works for the council.

On his lunch break, near the Cenotaph he said he was ‘centre-right’ and said ‘we need to do something about a bit of immigration, but called Mr Farage ‘not the right person’.

He explained: “One of my issues with Nigel is it's all just about immigration. I do not like his climate change policy.”

“But if you say that it's ‘you're either with us or against us’,” he added, illustrating how emotive the immigration debate has become.

“This country is very divided.

There's so much frustration because things are not getting better.”

Sale resident Shirley Blakeman, 76, is one. She said: “I think Nigel Farage is excellent because he’s put the cat among the pigeons. He's got the other parties listening, whether he means it or not.

But I think he's definitely right.

“Lots of people are against illegal immigration. There’s no point in arresting them. They should be sent back as soon as possible. I'm very angry about this.”