That’s a wrap!!
By Amy Britton
May 3, 2024

It has been an exciting day of ups and downs for all of the political parties involved in the local elections in Sheffield and Barnsley.

The biggest shock of the day was the Conservative Party being completely wiped out of Sheffield. Labour gained the Tories only seat in the Stockbridge ward.

Sheffield’s Liberal Democrat leader, Shaffaq Mohammed, is “disappointed” that his party has lost two seats in the area but the Liberal Democrats remain as the second largest party in Sheffield.

For Barnsley, the biggest blow came for the Conservative Party, after they lost their seat in Penistone East. The seat had been held by the Tories for almost 20 years by John Wilson, the former leader of the Barnsley Conservatives.

Ahead of the South Yorkshire Mayoral results tomorrow, Oliver Coppard is feeling quite confident that he will be able to maintain his position.

Mayor Coppard said: “People want to see change happening, that we’re taking the decisions that lead to them having better lives.

“That’s what government should be about. That’s what leadership should be about in politics. I hope that’s what we’ve done. I’m hopeful that that will be an endorsement of what we’ve done over the last two years and what we want to do over the next four years as well.”

Huge thanks to our Sheffield reporters, Peter and Ollie, and our Barnsley reporters, Richard, David, and Jack, for keeping us up to date with live reactions from the count!

After a long day, Amy and Kate are signing out!