Yahoo News In Brexit-backing town, Nigel Farage is either a 'pillock' or 'fantastic'. It depends who you ask
As a region, Merseyside was pretty split when it came to the 2016 Brexit vote.
While the city of Liverpool voted firmly to remain in the European Union - and was joined by the boroughs of Sefton and Wirral - the rest of the region voted to leave.
St Helens backed Brexit, with 58% in the town voting to leave.
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Nigel Farage was obviously a key character in the leave campaign and he is now hoping to disrupt the general election as leader of Reform UK.
Regarded as a divisive character by many in this region, how do the people of a town that supported his Brexit dream feel about the man? We hit the streets of St Helens to find out.
The responses we received were largely in support of Nigel Farage, although others were less favourable. One person described the controversial Reform leader as "a pillock."
Mark Cullen, from St Helens is a Farage fan.
The 58-year-old said: “Nigel Farage speaks the truth and what most people want to hear about immigration and about taxes being high.”
He continued: “He seems to speak what everyone wants to say but are too scared to, but he’ll come out and say it.”
Paul Owens, 65, agreed with this, saying “I think he’s good for this country, Rishi Sunak and the other fella [Sir Keir Starmer], I think are the same, we should have a change, I think he’s more for the people.”
Ryan Schofield, another St Helens resident, explained why he’s backing the Reform UK leader.
The 19-year-old said: “I like Nigel Farage because he’s trying to focus on the epidemic of drugs rather than vaping and smoking.”
John Paul Dawson, 51, also from the town was the most enthusiastic Farage fan we spoke to.
He said: “Nigel Farage is good I think, he’s fantastic and he’s doing everything!”
Unsurprisingly, the topic of Mr Farage did also evoke negative reactions.
Andy, and his wife Carol, from St Helens did not approve of Farage’s politics.
Andy, 57, said: “I think he’s a very dangerous right-wing politician. He comes out with very clever sound bites that appeal to people like on immigration, housing, and the Health Service, but he doesn’t have any substance to how he’s going to fix those things.”
Carol, 59, said: “I don’t like his politics or what he stands for, he’s jumping on the bandwagon of stopping all the boats coming over and I don’t think people really know about his right-wing politics other than they don’t want all the boats coming over.”
Evelyn Bruen Knowles, also from St Helens expressed her views in a clear and concise manner.
The 80-year-old said: “I think the man is a pillock.”
Many people we spoke to did not want to go on record giving their views, however it is clear from the conversations we had that Farage is a highly popular figure in the town.
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