Will Westminster lose Penistone East for the Tories first time in a generation?

By Roland Sebestyen
Published 3rd May 2023, 16:57 BST
Updated 3rd May 2023, 16:57 BST
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now
The opposition parties in a long-untouchable area in Barnsley can smell blood in the water for the first time in 25 years.

Penistone East has voted Conservative in the local elections since 1999.

It means that even during Tony Blair’s peak years the residents of villages such as Silkstone and Wortley, just to name a few, thought they would be better off with Tory councillors.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Even Amanda Griffin, the ward's Independent candidate who is standing because she is "fed up with what's going out there", admitted to the Local Democracy Service that she wasn't "surprised" about the fact that Penistone East is a Tory stronghold for the last twenty odd years.

Andrew Waters.Andrew Waters.
Andrew Waters.

However, this year the candidates standing for Penistone East think the temperature has changed.

Alex Burnett, the Labour candidate in the area, said “people were struggling”.