The constituency has been Labour for 73 years and, at the general election, the party held the seat with a majority of more than 11,000. The Liberal Democrats were second, six votes ahead of the Conservatives, but the BNP polled 8.9 per cent of the vote – one of its best results.
The BNP has been very active – in contrast to the Tories and Lib Dems – physically occupying the town’s public spaces in what many shoppers feel is an aggressive fashion. It is hard to tell whether voters are buying their message – the tide appeared to go out on the BNP last year – but the fear of anti-racist activists is that a low turn out will help the BNP although the presence of an English Democrat on the ballot should split the far-right vote.
Barnsley Central has always been a mining seat and many MPs had connections with the NUM. Dan Jarvis, the Labour candidate, is not local (although he has promised to make Barnsley his home if elected) and was not a miner. That has been a problem on the doorstep but activists say he has a “compelling message” and is “very effective” face to face. As a former Army major who spent 15 years in the Parachute regiment – he served with special forces in Helmand – he also neutralises the threat from the BNP whose fake patriotism is no match for the real thing.
Canvassers say that after a decade of haemorrhaging votes to other parties, it is good to see people switching back to Labour. Close knit commuter families who travel to Leeds and Sheffield are worried about child care while pensioners feel angry about the coalition’s savage cuts. Activists say the Prime Minister is now a “vote loser” for the Conservatives and plan, for the first time, to put a picture of David Cameron on the party’s election leaflets.
Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, who has been running the Labour campaign with Michael Dugher, MP for Barnsley East, said: “Our hope is that voters will use this opportunity to send a clear message to David Cameron that the Conservative cuts have gone too far too fast.”
