Barnsley East and Mexborough is the only constituency in South Yorkshire that covers more than one Borough Council area. It covers 6 Wards in the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council area namely Brierley, Darfield, Thurnscoe, Dearne South, Wombwell North and Wombwell South and two Wards namely Richmond and Mexborough in the West of the Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Doncaster area.

Many of the settlements in the constituency are former mining communities, which formed an extensive part of the former South Yorkshire mining area, which was by far and away the constituency's biggest employer. The last pit to close was Goldthorpe Colliery in 1994.

The constituency includes the shopping and market centres of Goldthorpe, Wombwell, Thurnscoe and Mexborough as well as the former mining community of Grimethorpe famous for its world renowned Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

The area is still struggling to recover from the mass unemployment caused by the steep decline of the coal mining industry.

The New Labour Government is directly funding initiatives to the area in an attempt top halt the decline and regenerate both business and local communities.

The constituency also has a large rural area with many small villages and hamlets. The constituency has well over 100 farmsteads, which are mainly involved in the arable, dairy and livestock industries.

Barnsley East and Mexborough is renowned as being one of the safest Labour seats in the UK and it is my aim to keep it that way.