The 2010 result was that of a marginal Labour majority. In 2015, the Labour majority increased, partly due to a split right-wing vote between the Conservatives and UKIP, while the Liberal Democrats' vote decline largely benefited Labour in the seat.
When the UKIP vote declined in 2017, with a large number of those voters going to the Conservatives causing a swing of almost 6% against Labour, the seat became extremely marginal.
Elected as a member of the Labour Party, MP Angela Smith quit the party in February 2019 and joined Change UK. She left this party in June 2019 and joined The Independents. She departed the parliamentary group in September 2019 and joined the Liberal Democrats. Smith chose not to defend her seat at the 2019 election; she instead contested Altrincham and Sale West for the Liberal Democrats, failing to gain the seat. At that election, Penistone and Stocksbridge was one of three seats gained by the Conservatives in South Yorkshire, the party's first seats there since before the 1997 general election. This was reversed at the 2024 general election when Labour regained this seat and once again held all the South Yorkshire parliamentary constituencies.
Constituency profile
The seat is most heavily populated on its eastern fringe, with communities built largely on the coal and steel industries, such as the ex-mining village of Dodworth and the steelworking town of Stocksbridge. Penistone too has a history of steelworking at the David Brown and high-tech foundries, although many local people are or have been employed at the Hepworth pipeworks (formerly Hepworth Iron Co./Hepworth Building Products) which specialises in the manufacture of pipes, mains and domestic, and whose fortunes vary with demand in construction. To the south lie the densely populated northern Sheffield suburbs of Chapeltown with its rich industrial history, Ecclesfield, Grenoside and High Green. Between these urban areas are rural villages including Oxspring, Wortley, Green Moor and Thurgoland occupied mostly by commuters to Sheffield (as well as those for Leeds and Manchester). The western area of the constituency is in the Peak District National Park.
^A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer).
^These are open for most of the year, the former as a regimental museum and the latter for special events, thus providing recreational and tourism income alongside the Peak District.
