Nigel Farage has said the "Corbyn effect" is causing Labour voters to sway to Ukip and could help secure a win at this week's by-election.

During a campaign visit to Oldham, Mr Farage said the Labour leader's remarks on shoot-to-kill policy had gone down "disastrously".

He said he had spoken with Labour supporters who are turning their back on the party and voting for Ukip.

Speaking at Oldham College with Ukip candidate John Bickley, ahead of Thursday's by-election, he said Jeremy Corbyn's views on the monarchy and security could cost the Labour Party 50% of its votes.

Mr Farage - who was given a tour of the beauty department at the college, commenting that he had never had his nails done - said: "There is this basic feeling that he's (Corbyn) not patriotic."

He added: "Corbyn is a hardline leftie, a hardline republican who wants to get rid of the Queen, wants to give away the Falkland Islands, wants to abolish the British Army, thinks (Sinn Fein president) Gerry Adams is a lovely bloke - the list is as long as your arm."

But he said the "real killer" was because Mr Corbyn hesitated when he was asked about shoot-to-kill.

"That has gone down disastrously," he added.

"Whichever way you look at it this is now a very, very tight contest. I think Corbyn and (shadow chancellor John) McDonnell fear that if John (Bickley) gets over the line, which he very well might, that their whole careers are threatened."

Responding to Mr McDonnell's comments that Ukip is an "evil force in society", Mr Farage said he believed the Labour MP was "scared".

"If that's what they have got to resort to they must be terrified. All I can say is that for a man who cosied up to the IRA, sympathised with their bombing campaign, a man who appears to sympathise with Hamas and everything else, for him to throw those levels of abuse at us is not only inappropriate, it just shows that they are scared."

He added that the by-election in Oldham West and Royton, a safe Labour seat, should have been a "non-event".

Voters will go to the polls on Thursday after the seat became vacant following the death of former minister Michael Meacher.

Mr Bickley said: "They can't get their heads around Jeremy Corbyn, he doesn't talk to them in a language they understand. It doesn't chime with Labour voters, and it's turning a lot of people off. Four weeks ago this was a Labour fortress and now it has all changed."

He said that issues raised by voters included immigration and wages in the North West.

Mr Farage said his party was encouraging Conservatives to use their vote tactically and vote Ukip to keep Labour out.

"I'm asking Tory supporters to lend us their votes on Thursday. If we get that right it could make the difference.

"I do think it's going to be tight. We are in with a chance. In a safe Labour seat like this it would be one hell of a victory."

Earlier the pair met shoppers and market stall holders in the Tommyfield Market in Oldham, where Mr Farage told onlookers they should vote for his party because "we are standing up and saying what they think".

He added: "Controlling immigration being a very big one, and I think security worries, worries about borders, worries about Isis. There is a feeling amongst old Labour voters that somehow Corbyn does not represent what they want from a Labour party."

Susan McDonald, 62, from Oldham, said she would be swapping her vote from Labour to Ukip.

She said: "I was brought up to vote for Labour by my parents, because they always said they work for the working classes. They don't any more, they work for themselves, and they work whatever suits them, not what suits the people."

She added that Mr Corbyn was "rubbish" and was not looking after the people.

"He hasn't got any respect for the armed forces, when he was at the Cenotaph he didn't bow his head properly. He has just got no thoughts for people in general, it's just himself. You have to look after us people who work hard.

"I hope Ukip gets in, there is a lot of like-minded people, there are a lot of us."