Labour has taken Penistone East from Reform UK after John Roberts secured a decisive victory in Thursday's Barnsley Council by-election.
Roberts received 1,728 votes, comfortably ahead of Reform UK's Eunice Asante on 795. The result gives Labour a majority of 933 and a 51.8 per cent share of the votes recorded for candidates.
Penistone East result in full
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| John Roberts | Labour | 1,728 | 51.8% |
| Eunice Asante | Reform UK | 795 | 23.8% |
| Steven John Burkinshaw | Conservative | 387 | 11.6% |
| David Wood | Restore Britain | 218 | 6.5% |
| Peter Millar | Independent | 87 | 2.6% |
| Andy Waters | Liberal Democrats | 70 | 2.1% |
| Ehren Holt | Green | 59 | 1.8% |
| Carlo Turner | Independent | 2 | 0.1% |
Barnsley Council reported turnout of 38.58 per cent, 3,346 votes cast and seven rejected ballots. The reported turnout was down from 56 per cent in Penistone East at May's full council election.
A Labour gain from Reform
The contest was triggered by the resignation of Reform councillor Kay Hughes for personal reasons. Hughes had won one of the ward's three seats at the May election, alongside Labour councillors Alex Burnett and Frances Nixon.
Roberts narrowly missed out in that three-seat contest despite polling 1,632 votes. He added 96 votes at the by-election and has now joined the council, while Reform's support was substantially lower than the totals recorded by its three candidates in May.
The comparison should be treated with some caution. May's election was a multi-member contest in which voters could support up to three candidates, whereas Thursday's by-election offered one vote for one vacancy. The lower turnout and different candidate line-up also make a conventional swing calculation unreliable.
Even with those qualifications, the result is a clear local setback for Reform and an encouraging result for Labour in a council area where Reform won overall control only three months ago.