{"id":71310,"date":"2026-05-08T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/?p=71310"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:15:07","slug":"labours-impenetrable-red-wall-may-collapse-at-the-barnsley-local-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/labours-impenetrable-red-wall-may-collapse-at-the-barnsley-local-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour&#8217;s impenetrable red wall may collapse at the Barnsley local elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The air is palpable in the Barnsley Metrodome as the votes are being counted, we will learn more around 2.30 this afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sir Steve Houghton, Labour leader of the Barnsley council, said: \u201ctoday\u2019s a shocker\u201d as Reform UK is predicted to win a majority of the votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sir Houghton also said: \u201cWhat Reform did in these local elections was turn it into a referendum as Nigel Farage said to get Starmer out which looks like that\u2019ll happen anyway\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barnsley has had a Labour council for more than 50 years and Sir Houghton said that has done so much for the people of the town.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said: \u201cwe have changed this town significantly so it makes it all the more disappointing that the election results will undo it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barnsley is expected to become the first Reform UK council in South Yorkshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The whole Barnsley turnout has been announced at 37.25% this is 13.41% more than the last local elections here in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/unnamed-1-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-71319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/unnamed-1-980x551.webp 980w, https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/unnamed-1-480x270.webp 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if the Prime Minister will leave but I know something has to change because otherwise this is going to continue happening and it is not good for Barnsley, it&#8217;s not good for South Yorkshire and it&#8217;s not good for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cIt&#8217;s a really tough day, Labour party colleagues are losing their jobs, Labour are losing our councils, we are losing our ability to help our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo it&#8217;s not a great day, and it&#8217;s about to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Coppard spoke highly of the current council saying it &#8220;completely revamped the town centre&#8221; but said the government &#8220;needs to listen very, very hard as the people have put them on notice&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reform UK&#8217;s candidates are not talking to the media today, they&#8217;ve said. Although a Reform UK county organiser, Susan Dyas, said: &#8220;we have done well in hull and we want to do even better in Barnsley&#8221;. However she didn&#8217;t have any answers for what they will do after the election results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest Barnsley election results &#8211; ReformUK set to end 50 plus years in council. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":768,"featured_media":71317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,50,16,85],"tags":[416,592,15,2123,38,131],"class_list":["post-71310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-top-stories","category-top-story-2","tag-elections","tag-labour","tag-news","tag-reform","tag-sheffield","tag-south-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Labour&#039;s impenetrable red wall may collapse at the Barnsley local elections - 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