BARNSLEY: Labour council leader warns to ‘be careful’ as exit polls suggest Reform win

Exit polls suggest that Reform’s David White is set to gain the seat from Labour’s Stephanie Peacock, who was the constituency’s MP in its former iteration of Barnsley East.

The seat has had a Labour MP since its formation in 1983.

In Barnsley North, formerly Barnsley Central and where Labour’s Dan Jarvis is defending his seat, the exit polls suggest that the former Reform candidate Robert Lomas has a 98 per cent chance of winning the seat.

However, Sir Steve Houghton told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that “we need to be careful” with the exit poll predictions, as they are “very abstract calculations laid across the country of what might happen – as opposed to reporters checking ballot papers here in Barnsley.

“The feeling we get on the doorstep is that yes, Reform will do well, I think we knew that anyway.

“But not enough to overturn the two sitting candidates. Time will tell.

“[In 1997] Labour came into a country that was getting on its feet and at the moment, Labour’s coming into a country that’s on its knees’.”

A result is expected for the two Barnsley constituencies – North and South – at around  1.30am.