Labour loses control of Barnsley council for the first time amid historic Reform UK wins
It was a historic moment for the town
Barnsley Council has changed colour for the first time in its history - though the newly-elected Reform UK have denied interviews with most of the press.
Since it was established in 1974, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council has been run by the Labour party.
However, in a historic moment on Friday May 8, Reform UK were announced as the new leaders of the council at Barnsley Metrodome.
The party started the day with no councillors, but by 5.30pm had passed the 32 seats needed to become a majority party.
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“It’s the toughest I’ve ever seen it,” Sir Stephen Houghton told The Star, as he lost his position as council leader after 30 years in the role.
The Labour councillor maintained his seat, but will be returning to the town hall on Monday in the opposition.
“We’ve had some difficult ones in the past, no getting away from it, but this has been really really challenging,” he continued.
“And the hardest part has been [that] it’s not been about Barnsley, it’s been about the national government and we’ve been fighting that battle to try and say to people ‘judge us on our record in Barnsley’.
“Sadly many of them have been judging us on our colleagues down in Westminster and what they’ve been doing.”
The stalwart of Barnsley council said that this local election had become a ‘referendum on Keir Starmer’, with conversations about the party’s leader dominating the campaign.
However, he didn’t call on the PM to resign, instead pointing to policy decisions, adding: “Changing Prime Minister without changing policy isn’t going to do anything, you’ll just have another unpopular Prime Minister in 12 months time.”
Despite Reform’s landmark victories, the party refused to speak to The Star.
They also denied interviews to LBC, ITV and the BBC.
Party chair for Barnsley, Edward Dillingham, did offer comments to the Yorkshire Post and Barnsley Chronicle, but refused to speak to all other outlets presents.
Party leader Nigel Farage told national press that the results across the country were ‘a truly historic shift in British politics’.
Nevertheless an understanding of how a Reform council in Barnsley will look when handling day-to-day issues like bin collections and road management remains unknown.
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Turn-out for this year’s elections was 37.25 per cent, with 70,182 residents casting votes.
It was 13 per cent increase from that last local elections in 2024, when only 24.14 of the voting population showed up to the polls.
While Reform and Labour dominated today’s conversations, two independent candidates did break through the party politics.
Andy Wray maintained his Rockingham Ward seat with 1,377 votes - an increase of 349 since he last faced elections in 2023 - while Jake Lodge kept his seat set in Worsborough with 1,595 votes.
Jake said he would work with the new leadership, as he talks about focusing on local issues rather than the national picture.
“I think what I’ve been able to get forward is that party politics doesn’t matter,” he told The Star.
“Independent councillors that want to represent their community can get through and should get through.
“So it’s been an absolutely fantastic campaign, dead excited to get cracking back on casework, I might have a bit of a rest though.”
As of 7.30pm, one ward - Penistone West - was left to be counted.
It was undergoing its second recount.
Results as of that time are: