When Susan Tapscott went to vote in the country’s local elections, there was just one party she considered. “Reform,” the retired legal worker tells me a week after she cast her vote. “They’re the only ones who understand how people are feeling… fed up with politicians, fed up with illegal immigration costing millions every day, fed up with the price of everything going up and nothing getting better.”She was, we now know, just one of thousands who turned to Nigel Farage’s outfit over a week ago – and, in doing so, sent British politics into an unprecedented spin and the Labour Party into a regicidal crisis.Across the length and breadth of England, council seats that were once red strongholds turned turquoise. Authorities, including Gateshead, Sunderland, Sandwell and Wakefield, fell under the party’s control while huge Reform gains were made everywhere from Birmingham to Bradford and Hartlepool to Havering. In Wigan, the party won 24 out of 25 available seats. On the other side of the country, in North East Lincolnshire, it took 13 out of 15.‘Fed up’: Susan Tapscott said Reform are the only ones who understand how people in Barnsley feel (Colin Drury/The Independent)Nowhere reflected this astonishing surge like the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley, where Tapscott lives.Here, Reform went from having no presence on the council to having 42 members. In one fell swoop, the party took control of an authority that had been Labour ever since its creation 50 years ago. So astonishing was the victory that, this week, the new intake were invited into the town hall for a crash course on how to be councillors.“It’s wonderful,” says Tapscott, a grandmother who, in her retirement, now does a bit of hair modelling for a town centre salon. “It shows that people won’t accept what is happening to their country.”It does, however, perhaps raise two ominous questions. One: how will Reform – a party that was founded just four years ago – fair at running this council and all the others it now controls? And two: Who in Labour would really be able to win back those lost voters?A long time comingSpend time talking to people in Barnsley town centre and it doesn’t take long to hear Reform’s praise being sung. “We’ve been taken for granted by Labour for years,” says one bus driver who declines to give his name. “Now, we have someone to vote for who might make a difference.”Tapscott herself is fairly predictable in that one of her biggest reasons for turning to the party was because of concerns over illegal immigration. Figures – first quoted by Rishi Sunak as prime minister – that up to £6m is being spent every day on housing asylum seekers especially irks her. “You talk about a cost of living crisis,” she says. “No wonder we have one if we’re wasting all that money on looking after people who shouldn’t be here.”While she acknowledges that a local councillor won’t have influence on national immigration policy, she says her vote is about demanding a mindset shift. “If we get more [Reform] people in councils and government, there’s more chance all these issues will get dealt with,” she says.Across Barnsley Market, Angus McKinlay won’t say explicitly who he voted for – but he’s happy that Labour has been given a bloody nose. The 54-year-old market trader – who owns the Joseph Cliff Fishmonger unit here – reels off a list of complaints: rising minimum wage preventing him from taking on new staff, rising national insurance adding to his outgoings, and a lack of perceived fairness in the welfare system.[Wes Streeting] can’t even sort doctors’ appointments out. How’s he going to run the country?Sue Hudson, newsagent“As far as I can see, he [Keir Starmer] spends his whole time either making poor decisions or making U-turns,” he says, before riffing on the Peter Mandelson affair. “Why would you bring back someone who had been booted out twice already? It makes no sense.”McKinlay’s an employer. Would he rehire someone who had twice been sacked? “Absolutely not,” he says. “That’s not how you run a business and it shouldn’t be how you run a government.”Will Reform crash and burn?While great hope has been stored by Reform for doing things different, since last week’s vote, there have been some hair-raising revelations about the new intake. Many of the councillors who lost their seats are now hoping that sheer incompetence will expose Reform for who they really are. At least two Reform councillors have already been suspended by the party. One, Nathanial Menday in Sheffield, is under investigation after reportedly sharing photos of a Nazi flag, encouraging the use of white supremacist symbols and saying the UK had a “subhuman underclass” on X. Another, Glenn Gibbins in Sunderland, has been temporarily axed following the emergence of a 2024 tweet about Nigerian people living in the town. “Melt them all down,” he wrote, “and fill in the potholes.”In Bradford, meanwhile, one councillor has reportedly already stood down. Daniel Devaney is said to have quit his seat after Facebook posts surfaced in which he praised Enoch Powell and labelled Muslims “pure scum”. Against this backdrop, Farage himself is now being investigated by parliamentary watchdogs for a £5m gift he received before becoming an MP.You’re not telling me that Labour doesn’t have bad apples. Look at the corruption scandals we’re always seeing, look at Mandelson. They’re all the sameLocal bus driverIt’s probably fair to say that the evidence from the 10 authorities which the party has run since 2025 doesn’t necessarily bode well. Money has been splashed on pet projects like putting flags up (in Nottinghamshire), and repeated promises to slash spending don’t appear to have come to fruition. “Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away, but there just aren’t,” one anonymous Reform cabinet member at Kent County Council told the Financial Times in October.In Greater Lincolnshire, the Reform mayor Andre Jenkyns has courted American fracking companies, while across the country in-fighting and back-biting has led to an estimated 73 Reform councillors quitting the party since last May. That’s not including the two – in Doncaster and Walsall – who were suspended and then allowed back again. Yet such a panoply of horrors appears factored into the minds of many voters here in Barnsley. “I don’t like that stuff,” says the aforementioned bus driver, referring to the most recent allegations of racist behaviour. “It’s offensive and those people should be sacked.”But would such ongoing revelations stop him voting Reform again? They would not. “You’re not telling me that Labour doesn’t have bad apples,” he says. “Look at the corruption scandals we’re always seeing, look at Mandelson. They’re all the same.”As Labour’s Westminster in-fighting continues, however, is there anyone in Labour who could change their mind? The jury, here at least, appears out. While the general consensus is that Starmer is an inadequate leader (“he couldn’t run a bath,” notes one butcher), there is not much love for those in parliament now considered most likely to replace him.Newsagent Sue Hudson, 70, is especially scathing about Streeting. “He can’t even sort doctors' appointments out. How’s he going to run the country?”Though Barnsley was full of bad words about Labour, one man’s name did result in a more positive reaction (PA)Few are seen as understanding the concerns and issues of ordinary voters. Angela Rayner and Shabana Mahmood, anyone? The most common reaction is essentially a grimace. “There are no big beasts in politics anymore,” says fishmonger McKinley. “I hear those names and I just think: lightweight.” Only one name, perhaps, is met with anything approaching warmth. Andy Burnham. “I like how he talks,” says McKinley. You’re not telling me that Labour doesn’t have bad apples. Look at the corruption scandals we’re always seeing, look at Mandelson. They’re all the sameLocal bus driverDespite their open disdain for Labour at a national level, in Barnsley, there’s also a strangely contradictory factor that may also be worth considering.Ask people here about the formerly Labour-run local council and, as often as not, even non-red voters are full of praise. Under Sir Stephen Houghton – who led the authority for 30 years until a week last Thursday – the authority was widely lauded for driving through a remarkable transformation of the town centre.Brian did say Labour had a difficult job after the Conservatives ‘left the country in a mess’ (Colin Drury/The Independent)A £213m regeneration – including a new market, library, cinema, bowling alley, food hall and multiple bars all based around a continental-style plaza – has seen record-breaking footfall (almost 10 million people passed through the centre last year). Improved transport links, investment in higher education campuses and a new central health centre are all said to have driven aspiration. One recent study found the town had the 14th best-performing high street in the UK. Even Reform voter Tapscott says it’s been a “wonderful” change. Debbie, who is enjoying a coffee across the plaza agrees, as does security guard Adrian. “They’ve done a brilliant job,” he nods. “It’s a town centre to be proud of. We love coming here now.”Yet these voters also eschewed Labour. The state of local GP practices, rising fuel and food costs, and a general disinclination towards Starmer all contributed to them going Liberal Democrat. Debbie, 66, has a mobility allowance which has recently been cut. “You don’t expect a Labour government to take money off vulnerable people, do you?” she says. A completely unscientific straw poll conducted over four or five hours in the town, Reform looks likely to win a future general election too. It can feel like red wall towns like Barnsley might be lost forever. It is a point agreed by 89-year-old Brian Richards. At his age (he says), he’s seen a few things, and concedes Starmer has had a difficult job. “The Tories left the country in a bloody mess the same as they always do,” the retired carpenter notes.But his son lives over near Greater Manchester and he admits that he likes what Burnham has done there. “He gets things done,” he says. “I’ve voted Labour all my life and I won’t stop now. Not for Farage. The man’s an idiot and you can quote me on that. But I think Labour would be more likely to win again with Andy Burnham.”