Labour marked its worst performance in more than 50 years when voters went to the polls in Barnsley in May, but 100 days on from those seismic local elections, the political landscape has shifted drastically. Could the South Yorkshire town, where Reform UK reaped the benefits of dissatisfaction with Labour, prove to be a test case for whether the governing party has turned the tide? Labour had run Barnsley’s council since its inception in 1974, but was left with just 11 councillors after Reform triumphed with 42 seats.
He has been replaced as prime minister by the former mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who won the Labour leadership uncontested after a landslide byelection victory. Meanwhile, the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, is facing scrutiny over his financial affairs. While he was decisively re-elected in Clacton on Thursday, after he called a byelection in protest over a parliamentary standards investigation into his financial gifts, the contest was largely viewed as a sideshow after other major parties declined to stand.
The parliamentary standards investigation has now resumed. Labour is now ahead in the polls for the first time since March 2025, with a YouGov poll on Monday giving Labour a two-point lead, at 24 points to Reform’s 22. Many in Barnsley used their vote in May to punish Starmer’s government, and while almost everyone the Guardian spoke to there this week said it was too early to judge the Reform council on their record, the new national political picture appears to be enticing at least some back to Labour.
In the town of Penistone, Richard Riding, 71, a retired HGV driver, said he was normally a Labour voter but had backed Reform in May “just for a change”. Labour’s Barnsley council was not your usual local administration. It had won both the Local Government Chronicle and the Municipal Journal (MJ) council of the year awards in 2023, becoming the first local authority to win both titles in the same year.
In February, Barnsley was named in the top 10 most productive councils in the country, coming in seventh in the Impower Index, published by the MJ. While in many towns people felt as dissatisfied with local administrations as they did with national government, Barnsley had launched a number of pioneering initiatives, including “health on the high street”, making it the first local authority to bring hospital services into the town centre, and free bus travel for under-18s, a version of which Burnham has since adopted nationally. Barnsley parents also received free school uniforms for their children in a scheme that saved families about £2.5m in a year.
It has already been scaled back by Reform. (Reform’s council leader and local party chair did not respond to interview requests.) Despite this innovative work, voters still punished Labour at the ballot box. It’s just frightening how many boats are coming across.” Jessica Morgan, 31, a retail worker, was always a Labour voter, but she voted Reform for the first time in May. Even my grandad, he used to be a pit miner and he’s always voted for Labour, but this time … no.
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