Karen, 66, a self-described “Barnsley lass”, stands on the edge of the town’s Glass Works looking around in despair.
“It used to be right friendly, lovely town this, and now nobody talks, nobody’s bothered. It’s all gone,” she concludes, bemoaning the loss of both community and industry in the South Yorkshire town once famous for its coal mining and glass manufacturing.
“Look around,” Karen says. “I know what Barnsley was, and I see what it is now and it’s terrible,” she adds bluntly.
“A lot’s been bad for Barnsley,” she says, and now more than 10 years after the town voted overwhelmingly in favour of the UK leaving the European Union, she’s concluded that Brexit has been bad for her town too.
“I don’t think they should have given people that vote,” the retiree says, reflecting on the initial 2016 referendum for Britain to depart the European Union. “I think they were voting for something else.”
“They were voting for immigration,” Carol, 69, chimes in, finishing her friend’s thought. “I think we’re in a mess now, thanks to that vote,” Karen adds.
On Monday, Andy Burnham said he would push for new post-Brexit deals with the EU at a summit next month, outlining his intention for “deeper cooperation” with the bloc to help drive economic growth in the UK.
In a statement to MPs, Burnham warned the EU’s Made in Europe plans posed “a risk to UK manufacturing” and said he was in talks to get “an arrangement” that worked for the UK. The EU proposals aim to protect EU industry from Chinese competitors but could impact British industry and supply chains.
Karen welcomes the Prime Minister’s proposal, listing manufacturers and industry the town has lost in recent decades and which she says the promise of Brexit never restored.
She goes through the town’s past economic stalwarts one by one: SR Gents, which made clothes for Marks and Spencer, a smattering of once thriving but now depleted textile mills and the coal industry, now gone entirely.
‘Our industry has been decimated’
We are standing in the shadow of the Glass Works, part of a £200m makeover to bring people back to the town centre, and named after the bottle works that fed most of the town for decades.
This Glass Works offers a TK Maxx, a Nando’s, a 13-screen cinema, and a few dozen other shops that sell things made almost everywhere but here.
A mile and a half away at Monk Bretton, the real glassworks is still running. Its furnaces turn out bottles for Coca-Cola and Bombay Sapphire, though with a fraction of the workforce of its heyday.
Peter Pleasance, 64, stands on the other side of the Brexit debate, but agrees with his fellow Barnsleyan that industry in the town has been “decimated”.
“Every industry’s been wiped out,” he says. “There’s only two big glass works in a town that used to be known for glass. Now there’s nowt at all.”
“My grandson works in a warehouse; my granddaughter works in a pub. My two other granddaughters are at college and looking for work. There’s just nothing,” he adds. “There’s no proper jobs.”
Peter says he still backs his decision to vote leave but does not think Brexit has yet been “implemented properly”.
The ex-miner said he voted for Reform at the last general and council election and still “hopes” they can improve the town’s fortunes.
“I think we’ve just given them a chance,” he said, and “hopes” they can improve the life in Barnsley despite being “scared” of cutbacks they may make to public services.”
Kai Broadley, 19, has lived here all his life and was a child when the Brexit vote took place.
“We need something to help the younger generation put their mind to something,” he said. “A lot of them just sit outside the bus station and cause trouble.”
“More jobs, basically,” the car painter and detailer said.
A split vote
More than 68 per cent of voters in Barnsley backed Brexit in 2016, but the jury still appears to be out on whether residents think they made the right decision.
Asked if he would support rejoining the EU, a Barnsley FC jacket-wearing man responded: “I’ll give you one word: yes,” before apologising and dashing inside Barnsley Markets.
Maureen, an 87-year-old pensioner, making her way out of the bus station, said she would “definitely” vote to rejoin after voting to remain in 2016.
Another group of four shoppers insisted they would not support rejoining. “We voted to stay out so we need to stay out,” one of the men, who chose not to give his name, added.
John Park, 75, a retiree, said he did not believe Brexit had been “a bad thing” for the town but felt his vote in favour of leave had not helped solve the issue of immigration.
He said he would be “pretty annoyed” if Brexit was reversed, but said he could see voting for Labour again if it was able to keep immigration “under control”.
Immigration
Back outside the Glass Works, Karen says she’s lived in the same house for years, watching the profile of the town change rapidly around her.
“My next-door neighbour now is Lithuanian, the other is Romanian, and we use sign language with each other because she can’t speak English,” Karen explains. “Alright, I can’t speak her language, but she’s in England.”
“They’re smashing, I get on with them”, she says, “but it’d just be good if they learnt some English… to have a chat with them.”
They both say they voted to remain in the EU, and believe the decision has been detrimental to their town ever since.
The pair said they have “a little hope” that things will change with Burnham in Downing Street.
Cllr Luke Wheat, the Reform-majority council’s spokesperson for regeneration and assets, dismissed Burnham’s intention to revisit the UK’s relationship with the EU.
“We, Barnsley, voted a decisive 68 per cent in favour of leaving the EU – that is a democratic process in which we participated,” he insisted.
“Any attempt to reverse that decision without a general election fought on an explicit manifesto would be a direct rejection of democracy and an insult to the millions who voted to take back control.”
Stephen Bullock, an independent councillor, remained more open to the idea.
“The UK is stronger when we have good working relationships with our European neighbours,” he said.
“However, I also recognise that the people of Barnsley voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union in 2016, and that democratic decision should be respected.”