Pontefract - Governance

Governance

For local government purposes the town lies in the City of Wakefield, thereby coming under the governance of Wakefield Council. For this purpose it is divided into two electoral wards: Pontefract North and Pontefract South. Pontefract South is currently represented by two Labour councillors and one Conservative, with North ward represented by 3 Labour councillors . South ward is a marginal ward, containing relatively affluent suburbs of Pontefract and outlying villages such as Darrington, combined with less wealthy areas such as Chequerfield.

Pontefract is represented by Member of Parliament (MP), Yvette Cooper, a member of the Labour Party for the Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford constituency. Cooper is currently Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. She was elected MP for the Pontefract and Castleford constituency at the 1997 general election succeeding the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Geoff Lofthouse, who retired as then MP. Pontefract and Castleford was merged with the Normanton constituency in a boundary change before the 2010 general election.

In her maiden speech to the House of Commons, Cooper said: "The House must not misunderstand me. It is true that my constituency is plagued by unemployment, but I represent hard-working people who are proud of their strong communities and who have fought hard across generations to defend them. They are proud of their socialist traditions, and have fought for a better future for their children and their grandchildren. In the Middle Ages, that early egalitarian, the real Robin Hood, lived, so we maintain, in the Vale of Wentbridge to the south of Pontefract. It was a great base from which to hassle the travelling fat cats on the Great North Road."

The seat which has a history of mining and industry, has consistently returned Labour MPs at general elections. Yvette Cooper polled 48.1% of the vote in the 2010 general election.

The local ex-miner and former local NUM branch leader Geoff Lofthouse was MP for the former constituency of Pontefract and Castleford from 1978 to 1997. Lofthouse was made a peer on 11 June 1997: he is now known as Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract.