The seat largely resembles the old Penistone Constituency, which, following the election of a Conservative in the Conservative landslide in 1931, returned MPs representing the Labour Party through to its abolition in 1983. In 1983, two new constituencies were formed, Sheffield Hillsborough and Barnsley West and Penistone, both of which returned Labour MPs at every election they were fought. The 2010 result was that of a marginal Labour majority. In 2015, the Labour majority increased, partly due to a split right-wing vote between the Conservatives and UKIP, while the Liberal Democrats' vote decline largely benefited Labour in the seat. When the UKIP vote declined in 2017, with a large amount of those voters going to the Conservatives causing a swing of almost 6% against Labour, the seat became extremely marginal. Elected as a member of the Labour Party, MP Angela Smith quit the party in February 2019 and joined Change UK. She left this party in June 2019 and joined The Independents. She departed the parliamentary group in September 2019 and joined the Liberal Democrats. Smith chose not to defend her seat at the 2019 election; she instead contested Altrincham and Sale West for the Liberal Democrats, failing to gain the seat. In this election, the Conservatives gained Penistone and Stocksbridge to gain one of three seats in South Yorkshire, their first since before the 1997 general election.
Constituency profile
The seat is most heavily populated on its eastern fringe, with communities built largely on the coal and steel industries, such as the ex-mining village of Dodworth and the steelworking town of Stocksbridge. Penistone too has a history of steelworking at the David Brown and high-tech foundries although many local people are or have been employed at the Hepworth pipeworks which specialises in the manufacture of pipes, mains and domestic and whose fortunes vary with demand in construction. Between these urban areas are rural villages including Oxspring, Wortley, Green Moor and Thurgoland occupied mostly by commuters to Sheffield. The western area of the constituency is in the Peak District National Park. The seat contains three significant stately homes: Cannon Hall is open to the public as the 13th/18th Royal Hussars Museum, while Wortley Hall is largely used by trade unions and their families; the third is Wentworth Castle, where an adult educational establishment, Northern College, is based.
