Labour won, what now?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

Governments don’t change very often. The last time it happened was 2010, and the time before that 1997. Over the next few days and weeks there will be acres of newsprint and many hours of airtime devoted to what the new government will do in this or that area. But what plans have the new government got for Sheffield and South Yorkshire? That’s our big story today.

As well as that, looking back at when the Tour de France came to Sheffield, and Masterchef star Raheel Mirza teaches Goan cuisine at the Cambridge Street Collective.

Catch up and coming up

For our weekend read, Frances Byrnes, whose work you may have heard on BBC Radio 3 and 4, wrote a gorgeous piece about Third Bite Dance. Third Bite is a dance company for older people based in Weston Park, which is currently rehearsing for a performance at Yorkshire Dance’s Ageless Festival in Leeds this Friday. With typical Yorkshire humour, their piece is called The Fallen — a reference not only to their increased risk of falls but to the many falls that make up a long life: from grace, off bikes, in love. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 2,210 paying members. In the first, Dan visited three volunteer-run libraries in Sheffield to find out how they have survived 10 years after 16 libraries in Sheffield lost their paid staff due to austerity cuts. And in the second, The Tribune team pulled a largely alcohol free all-nighter to bring you the definitive take on the election in Sheffield as Labour were swept back to power. An extract from that second piece is below.

Tables are spread with buffets of cold onion bhajis and white bread roll sandwiches. BBC One is playing on the screen, as Not Going Out ends the volume is jacked up. Outside, Mayor Oliver Coppard is having a drink with one of the Combined Authority staff. “I think Hallam’s safe,” he tells me, and that for the first time in a long time, he’s beginning to believe there will be a Labour government. The words look excitable on the page when I transcribe them — but his tone is steady, even. There’s a clap from the crowd when the exit poll lands, but everyone stays seated. Euphoria, it isn’t.

This week we’ll send out two more, including an interview with a robotics professor at the University of Sheffield, about both the dangers and opportunities of AI, plus another major investigation which we can’t say too much about just yet. To help fund a new way of doing journalism funded by paying members rather than clickbait, please consider subscribing if you haven’t already. It costs just £1.71 a week or 24p a day if you pay for 12 months up front (£89).

Editor’s note: A new government, and one much more in tune with our city’s political sensitivities, is an opportunity for Sheffield. Local proposals are more likely to get a hearing, and Starmer’s team will want to show they can deliver here. But it also means there’s all the more need for proper scrutiny of local politicians, particularly the ones now sat around Starmer’s cabinet table. Here at The Tribune, our mission is to report without fear or favour, giving the time needed for proper investigations. We’ve got a big one coming out on Thursday, which raises difficult questions for local politicians about one of the city’s biggest projects. We can only do it with your support — please join today.

The big picture: Dancing shoes 💃

On Saturday, hundreds of dancers hot-footed it to Sheffield city centre for the annual Chance to Dance event. First held in the year 2000, the original idea came from Sheffield’s involvement in the World Health Organisation European Healthy City Movement, when Turku, a city in Finland, challenged other European cities to organise a city centre dance festival in the streets of their city. The photo above, which was taken by Tim Dennell, shows Sheffield-based dance group Charleston-a-go-go performing in the Peace Gardens. Lots more photos of the event are here.

This week’s weather 🌥️

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say this week will be rather changeable again with dry and fine weather interspersed with cooler and wetter spells. Temperatures close to average for the time of year.

Monday ️ Many places dry and fine with some sunshine. A low risk of an isolated heavy shower later. Warm with highs of 21°C. 

Tuesday A wet start with rain slowly clearing north. Brighter later on but with a scattering of heavy showers. Southerly winds and feeling muggy at 21°C.

Wednesday Chance of a shower in any thicker cloud to the west, otherwise largely dry with some brighter spells. Breezy from the SW with highs of 20°C.

Thursday Cooler air from the northwest will bring increasing cloud and the risk of some patchy light rain. Highs of around 19°C at best.

Friday Further cloud and showery outbreaks of rain possible, with a few brighter spells too. Remaining cool with northerly breezes. 17°C the high.

Outlook: Low confidence for the weekend; temperatures likely to be close to average with the chance of further showers in between brighter spells. 

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

The big story: Labour has won. What now?

Top line: As dust settles on the general election results, and the political nerds among us catch up on some much needed sleep, attention is turning to what happens next. The new government has a number of major policy proposals that could impact our region, from devolution to transport and climate change to economic growth. What will Labour do for South Yorkshire?

The election results mean that Labour now holds almost all the levers of power in South Yorkshire. As well as winning all 14 parliamentary seats (including all six in Sheffield), Labour’s Oliver Coppard holds the role of South Yorkshire Mayor, and Labour has comfortable majorities at the councils in Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster. (Sheffield Council, where Labour is the largest party but must rely on the Lib Dems and Greens to govern, is the only exception.) While this would have been what the party hoped for, it also means there will be few excuses if they fail to deliver for the region.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard is wasting no time. He wrote to the new PM on Friday, welcoming Starmer’s strong commitment to English devolution and urging him to deepen the process by granting more powers and responsibilities to South Yorkshire. 

• Other combined authorities have already been given these so-called “trailblazer” devolution deals. Greater Manchester and the West Midlands now have expanded powers over transport, skills, housing and retrofitting, plus they can access greater funding for affordable housing, brownfield land development and achieving net zero.
• Coppard also called for the combined South Yorkshire authority to be given a “single funding settlement.” What this means is that, rather than receiving several pots of money from central government which it can only spend in certain areas, South Yorkshire would instead be handed one large pot of money that it could divvy up however it sees fit.

Coppard is likely to get what he wants. The incoming Labour government has described economic growth, particularly in the regions, as one of its main priorities. In his letter, the Mayor said South Yorkshire could “play a vital role” in helping the Prime Minister achieve that ambition, with its “unique assets, expertise, and emerging industrial strategy”. He continued:

“We are leading the way across vital parts of the digital, health, and advanced manufacturing and materials economy. We are home to one of the largest CleanTech clusters in the country, with unique capabilities across power, propulsion and production. We have world class health-tech and digital sectors.”

On Saturday, the PM announced that all metro mayors will be invited to a meeting this Tuesday to discuss working together, saying that those with “skin in the game know what is best for their communities” and that he would be “bold about pushing power and resource out of Whitehall".

It won’t hurt that South Yorkshire is well represented around Starmer’s cabinet table as well. Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh is the new secretary of state for transport, which has exposed people up and down the country to her distinctive look for the first time.

Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, Wentworth and Dearne MP John Healey is the new secretary of state for defence, while Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband was named secretary of state for energy security and net zero.

• Mayor Coppard is in the process of taking the region’s buses into public control, but Louise Haigh has said that Labour would actually go further and allow local authorities to set up their own municipal bus companies (this is currently illegal).
• She has also said that while the party would not revive the second phase of HS2 beyond Birmingham, it would renationalise the railways and build Northern Powerhouse Rail, a railway network linking the great cities of the north, in full.

We will soon be running a piece about what the Department for Transport could do for Sheffield’s railways, written by rail engineer and expert Gareth Dennis. Watch this space.

Our take: Labour scored a huge victory on Thursday but, as has been pointed out elsewhere, they triumphed at least as much off the back of the Tories’ unpopularity as from their own appeal. The party has lots of big ideas and has talked about “a decade of national renewal”. But, as the mixed composition of Sheffield’s Council has shown, Labour would be foolish to take our city for granted. If they don’t achieve tangible improvements in Sheffield and South Yorkshire over the next five years, the electorate may judge them harshly.

The Weekly Whitworth ✍️

Cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on the Sheffield general election results.

Our media picks

Green walls turn brown 🌱 Anyone who has been past M&S on Ecclesall Road recently will have seen the huge green wall on the side of the building looking decidedly brown. In this piece in The Star, the firm says the wall, which was installed on the flagship green store when it was built in 2011, died because of “drainage issues” and would be replanted soon. Another green wall on the new Gaumont building in the city centre is already showing signs of deterioration.

Sheffield turns 100% Labour on 50% of the vote 🗳️ One of the most interesting subplots of the election was how disproportionate the final results were, and whether this makes the case for moving to a more proportional voting system. This piece in Now Then points out Labour won every seat in Sheffield on just half the vote. Green Alexi Dimond, who came second in Sheffield Heeley, said this shows how “fundamentally flawed and anti-democratic” our electoral system is.

The memories, the audacity of it and the legacy 🚲 This weekend marked the 10th anniversary since the Tour de France visited Sheffield for Le Grand Départ. This piece in the Yorkshire Post has some great photos but also reflects on the impact the event had, both at the time and in the years that have followed. “Yellow bicycles propped against street signs, cafes painted red and white like a polka dot jersey,” writes reporter Nick Westby. “The grandest Grand Départ ever.”

Home of the week 🏡

This beautiful three bedroom Crookes terrace has a stunning kitchen and a spacious living room, and is also just a short walk away from Crookes high street. It is on the market for £260,000.

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first poll instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Music 🎶 Toeing the line between haunting beauty and abstract silliness, The Spooky Men’s Chorale are true one-offs. Performing Georgian polyphonic works, offbeat covers of contemporary pop songs and originals, the choir comment on “the absurdity and grandeur of the modern male armed with only their voices, a sly collection of hats and facial hair and a twinkle in the eye.” They perform at The Leadmill on Tuesday. Tickets are £24 and doors open at 7.30pm.

Cooking 🍛 As well as being a food hall, the Cambridge Street Collective also has a cookery school. On Wednesday, Sheffield-based Masterchef star Raheel Mirza and Blend Culinary Foundation will host a two-hour masterclass all about Goan cuisine. The class will feature a full demonstration before a “cook-along” with Raheel who will guide you through making your own fish curry from scratch. All ingredients will be provided and are included in the £40 ticket price.

Talk 🔪 In 1624, the Parliamentary Act of Incorporation gave the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire the legal rights to manage the cutlery trades in and around Sheffield. On Thursday at the Millennium Gallery, join company archivist Joan Unwin for a talk all about its fascinating history, their ups and downs, and the part they still play in Sheffield’s manufacturing today, in celebration of their 400th anniversary. The one-hour talk is free and begins at 6pm.