2024 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council election

The Local Government Act 1972 created a two-tier system of metropolitan counties and districts covering Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire starting in 1974. Barnsley was a district of the South Yorkshire metropolitan county.^[1] The Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan counties, with metropolitan districts taking on most of their powers as metropolitan boroughs. The South Yorkshire Combined Authority was established in 2014 as the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which began electing the mayor of South Yorkshire in 2018.^[2]

Since its formation, Barnsley has continuously been under Labour control. Councillors have predominantly been elected from the Labour Party, various independents, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. The council elected a large number of Barnsley Independent Group councillors in the 2006 election, whose numbers had fallen in subsequent elections until its dissolution as a party in 2023. Councillors who will be seeking re-election were most recently elected in the 2021 election, which was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During that election, seventeen Labour councillors were elected with 40.4% of the vote across the borough, with three Liberal Democrats on 11.8% of the vote across the borough and one Conservative with 25.1% of the vote across the borough. Labour held the Rockingham ward after a coin toss broke a tie between the Labour candidate and the Conservative candidate.^[3] In the most recent election in 2023, Labour won 15 seats, the Liberal Democrats won 4 seats and independents won 2 seats. After that election, the council had 48 Labour councillors, ten Liberal Democrats, two Conservatives, two independents, and one Reform UK councillor.

The council elects its councillors in thirds, with a third being up for election every year for three years, with no election in the fourth year.^[4][5] The election will take place by first-past-the-post voting, with wards generally being represented by three councillors, with one elected in each election year to serve a four-year term.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in Barnsley aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities. Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 07:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.

• 
  Council composition after the 2023 election
• 
  Council composition ahead of the 2024 election
• 
  Council composition following the 2024 election

Changes 2023–2024:

• 8 November 2023: Mat Crisp (Liberal Democrat) resigns; seat left vacant until election.^[6]
• December 2023: Pooja Ramchandani (Labour) resigns; seat left vacant until election.

Labour retained its majority on the council at this election.^[7]

2024 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council election
Party		This election			Full council			This election
		Seats	Net	Seats %	Other	Total	Total %	Votes	Votes %	+/−
	Labour	17		81.0	31	48	76.2	21,995	48.9	+2.8
	Liberal Democrats	4	1	19.0	7	11	17.5	7,420	16.5	–1.0
	Independent	0		0.0	0	2	3.2	2,398	5.3	–5.4
	Conservative	0	1	0.0	1	1	1.6	5,274	11.7	–2.5
	Reform UK	0		0.0	1	1	1.6	4,156	9.2	+6.3
	Green	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	2,035	4.5	–0.1
	SDP	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	396	0.9	–0.1
	English Democrat	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	313	0.7	N/A
	Yorkshire	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	272	0.6	–1.4
	TUSC	0		0.0	0	0	0.0	234	0.5	±0.0