What to expect in Sheffield after the local elections?
Sheffield has, once again, become a Tory-free zone but while Labour have extended their lead in the council chamber, now we know they did not win as big as it may have looked at first glance.
As Julia Armstrong, one of the local democracy reporters in Sheffield, put it in her analysis piece following last Friday’s count, Sheffield Labour had “a great day” as they gained five seats net (winning six new seats and losing one in Darnall to a pro-Gaza independent candidate).
They now hold 36 out of 84 seats, with the Liberal Democrats on 27, Greens remaining on 14 and the Sheffield Community Councillors group down from eight to six.
However, while the leader of the council, Cllr Tom Hunt said Sheffield had “backed” their plan, in comparison to 2021 (in the first year of this current three-year cycle), Labour could only increase their vote share slightly.
What’s more interesting, back then Labour polled significantly worse nationally and Sheffield Labour still had the full team – including the later known Sheffield Community Councillors Group – under their umbrella.
Now, despite the big lead nationally and winning five extra seats, Labour did not get many more votes in Sheffield – something they will have to look into in the next years.
Labour is the largest party in Sheffield (and South Yorkshire with Oliver Coppard re-elected as mayor) but they cannot be complacent.
They will be the first to admit.
Also, losing Darnall to the pro-Gaza independent candidate Qais Al-Ahdal is a message they need to de-code sooner rather than later.
The Liberal Democrats
Of the three big parties in Sheffield, the Liberal Democrats could be the most disappointed.
Not only they lost their long-time councillor Roger Davison but they also came third in the vote share behind The Green Party.
Yes, they are still well clear ahead in second place but as Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, the leader of the group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on Friday, they now need to “re-group”.
Cllr Mohammed is standing to be his party’s candidate in the next general election in Sheffield Hallam and is still confident that they could win but losing Crookes and Crosspool on Friday (albeit contesting it so it was a Labour hold) by more than 1,000 votes must have been painful.
The Green Party
Of the three party leaders, Cllr Douglas Johnson was (or at least looked) the most satisfied.
They were defending a lot of seats and they came out of this set of elections with the same amount of seats as they had beforehand.
They lost Walkley to Labour – making it an all-Labour ward but unseating Cllr Davison in Ecclesall was a massive win for them.
They proved that The Green Party had a place in Sheffield and by having 14 councillors they will still be part of decision-making at Sheffield Town Hall.
Funnily enough, they had almost the same number of votes as they did in 2021.
This cannot be said about the Tories who are now without representation in the council chamber.
In 2021, Lewis Chinchen won in Stocksbridge and Upper Don. Before this election, he announced he wouldn’t stand and without him, the Tories had no chance of sending anyone in the chamber again.
They only had a few hundred votes in almost every ward they contested.
In 2021, they had more than 25,000 votes across the city. This year, they had barely over 10,000 votes.
Sheffield has become a Conservative-free zone with Reform UK not breaking through either.
Sheffield has changed massively in the last three years – as politically as culturally.
What did not change – maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, everyone needs to decide this for themselves – that the big parties will have to work together in the next years in the committee system.
No overall control means that there are no “ifs or buts”, every single one of the council members will have a say on issues that matter most to Sheffield folk.
So your vote regardless of who you cast it for did matter.