Barnsley Independent Group is a British

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, England. The party was founded in January 2006 by a group of former

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillors on

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of ...

. At that time they had seven councillors, and in the

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

that May they fielded 17 candidates. They have contested council elections since.

Structure

The party leader is Phillip Birkinshaw, but there are no whips and membership is only open to councillors and candidates, which the party says is to prevent influence from being exerted in the background by a party structure or powerful individuals. All candidates pay their own expenses.

Elections

After the 2007 elections the Group had 22 councillors, and 24 after the 2008 elections. Despite threatening to overtake Labour as the largest party on Barnsley Council in 2008, BIG's fortunes have dramatically altered, being reduced to 5 councillors after suffering massive losses in the 2012 Local Elections, and with the Group only able to field 5 candidates in 2015 and reduced to four councillors in 2016. The Group was further reduced at the 2018 local elections, fielding just two candidates in the Dodworth and Stairfoot wards, losing in both and being reduced to two councillors (Philip Birkinshaw in Dodworth and Gill Carr in Worsbrough-both next up for election in 2020).

References

External links

* Locally based political parties in England Political parties established in 2006 Politics of Barnsley 2006 establishments in England {{UK-party-stub