1. Barnsley England’s longest-serving council leader, Stephen Houghton, has outlasted eight prime ministers in his three decades in charge in Barnsley. The South Yorkshire town is unrecognisable from the one that had “gone off a cliff” after mine closures and the loss of 20,000 jobs. Yet for all the council’s achievements, Houghton said it was “very difficult” to get a hearing on the doorstep as two issues dominate: “It’s the prime minister. And it’s migration.” Houghton, who was knighted in 2013 for his services to local government, said the mood was dire: “We’re walking into a political abyss in three years’ time. That’s where we’re going. Very rarely do governments recover from what might be coming in two weeks.” Farage, who visited Barnsley this week, is increasingly confident of toppling the Labour council for the first time since the modern borough was formed in 1974. Houghton said the challenge for his party was much bigger than Starmer. “Labour has got to stop looking like and feeling like a big city party,” he said, urging the government to focus strategic investment in technology, defence and roads into areas across the Midlands and north. In the village of Cudworth, Richard Key, the owner of Deacons DIY store, said many of his customers were disillusioned Labour voters who have said they would never vote for the party again and that many were going to Reform UK. View image in fullscreen Richard Key said many of his customers were disillusioned Labour voters who have said they would never vote for the party again. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Key, 55, described the Labour government as “useless” but that he was prepared to give the party his vote because it had done a good job locally. Jason Evans, a critical care practitioner, agreed. “In terms of around here I don’t think Labour have done a bad job. As a family man, my kids have been really well looked after by Labour,” he said. But that is where his enthusiasm ends. Evans said the government had failed to deliver its promises and was handing benefits to families who did not need it. The Reform candidates trying to unseat Labour in Barnsley include a man who appeared on the Channel 4 documentary My Online Bride in 2014, in which he admitted spending £8,000 to secure a visa for a Thai woman who would do “chores”. In one clip he points to a cupboard of cleaning products and tells her: “That’s your cupboard.” Another Reform candidate is a self-described “spiritual medium” who appeared on a TV show to reconnect with his “past life” as a Native American. His website advertised ghost nights and ceremonies to clear unwanted “earth-bound spirits”. A third was criticised for mocking a man shopping in Aldi as “his Pip money had landed”, posting a covertly taken photograph of the shopper “looking for provisions to take back to [his] nest of claimants”. Farage allies know, however, that most voters will not carry out research on individual candidates before polling day. What matters is the party logo. View image in fullscreen Steve Houghton, leader of Barnsley metropolitan borough council: ‘We’re walking into a political abyss in three years’ time.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
2. Sunderland In the north-east of England last year, Labour were humiliated and almost wiped out in their former stronghold of County Durham. In 2017, the party had 94 of the county council’s then 126 seats. It now has five of 98. The runaway winners were Reform and no one would be surprised if the same thing happens in the elections for Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside councils. Each one is an all-out election, with all council seats being contested. Each council has a Labour majority. None has a single Reform councillor. Yet Farage is so confident of victory in Sunderland that he chose the city to formally launch his party’s local election campaign. Talking to voters in the city centre revealed strong Reform support, although it may not be the juggernaut some are predicting. Chinks in the Reform armour are appearing. The party lost ward byelections in Durham and Northumberland this year. The most common view was an almost visceral antipathy towards politicians of all parties. “I cannot stand the lot of them,” said Ronnie Smyth, a retired building site worker, out with his wife, Joyce. “Starmer is a waste of space, he’s just clueless. I was Labour all my life when Labour was for the working class, now they’re for people with money. “We just don’t want to vote any more. Sometimes I just don’t want to listen – they are all just the same.” He added: “Everyone is just sick to their back teeth of politicians, especially in the north-east, in Sunderland. We are the forgot-about city.” View image in fullscreen Joyce and Ronnie Smyth in Sunderland city centre: ‘We just don’t want to vote any more.’ Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian Ernie Mileham, 79, a former miner who supports Reform, said: “I always voted Labour, but not now. They’re screwing us. If the 600 MPs sitting there [in the Commons] were all vetted, well there’d not be many still there.” Labour has been in control of Sunderland since the council was created in 1974. Local councillors hope voters will vote for local reasons, pointing to improvements across the city – a new cultural venue, a new eye hospital, a footbridge over the Wear, more office space and the jobs they bring, a film and TV studios. That hope is optimistic. “Labour deserve to lose,” said Janet Wight, out with her husband, Morgan. “They do a lot now but all the improvements have happened since Sunderland lost out to becoming city of culture [in 2021]. That’s when it started. Before then everywhere, the seafront and everything, was rubbish. I think they deserve what they are going to get.”