New Labour leader looks to Barnsley's future under Reform rule
BARNSLEY’S Labour group leader has given his thoughts on Reform’s inexperience in council leadership and lack of policy plans, following their local election success and Labour’s devastating results.
Cllr James Higginbottom, who represents Wombwell, was appointed new Barnsley Labour group leader, following Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton stepping down.
He said: “Door after door, the people we were speaking to were saying ‘I like what you are doing [as a council], but we can’t vote for you this time.’
“It was about national issues, such as the Prime Minister. They said ‘we’re not voting for you because of Keir Starmer’ and ‘we’re not voting for you because we don’t feel that the government has done what it set out to do, or quick enough’,” he said.
In the end the councillor felt that the local election “became a referendum on national issues,” which resulted in devastating seat losses for Labour in Barnsley and across the country.
After Reform was elected with 42 councillors Labour became the official opposition party with 11 councillors.
“As the official opposition, our job is to be the voice of scrutiny. When we see things going well, we will always be a strong champion for that because fundamentally we want to see Barnsley go in the right direction, Cllr Higginbottom said.
“Stuff like the town centre regeneration and that investment across the borough, we want to see what the next phase looks like."
Reform is the second party to lead Barnsley Council, after Labour led for over 50 years.
During the annual council meeting on May 29, the new council leader and Reform member William Brown opted against making a victory speech.
Cllr Higginbottom said: “I want to know what Reform’s policies are if I’m brutally honest. We’ve not had the details of that.
“They ran on a manifesto that they were going to drop council tax. That got mysteriously dropped as we got nearer to the election.”
In local campaign leaflets, Barnsley Reform told prospective voters they wanted to ‘end woke in Barnsley’.
“I’m not aware of any so-called ‘woke’ policies that are costing the council millions each year that they are going to be able to make savings on.
“What they ran on was pretty thin in detail.”
He said he doesn’t “underestimate the difficulty of being a [new] councillor”, but warned that Reform will need to adapt quickly.
“I can understand this will be daunting for them. Public service and life comes at you very fast and this isn’t the time to learn on the job as it were.
“They need to be in a position to hit the ground running with that. We will see what that shakes out like,” he said.
Reform’s cabinet will be responsible for setting the annual budget and allocating public spending across the borough.
“If you’ve been elected on a big promise that everything’s going to be a radical change, and you’re going to do things differently and better, let’s have a look at what that budget looks like,” said Cllr Higginbottom.
Despite the seat loss that Labour suffered in Barnsley, the leader remains hopeful that the party can come back and lead the council after the next local election.
“It’s where we go from here, we’ve got to rebuild that. We’ve got to be in a position where we are as the Labour Party, still in the picture," Cllr Higginbottom said.
“Then we need to have a serious look at how we, in four years' time, be in a position where we are putting forward a really bold prospectus for why Barnsley Labour can run this town again.
“I have a good team of colleagues behind me in the Labour group and the support of a wider network right across the Labour Party and movement in Barnsley.”
When addressing voters who don’t feel represented by Labour in Barnsley anymore, he acknowledged that they have been dedicated to looking at where they went wrong with policies.
“Any administration that tells you that everything is perfect, isn’t telling you the truth," Cllr Higginbottom said.
“I think what we have been good at as a council is learning those lessons and where services haven’t worked as well as they could, we have taken steps to improve them.”
The Barnsley Reform group has been contacted for comment.