Editing Pontefract (section)

==Governance==
[[File:Pontefract Registry Office (1).JPG|thumb|right|upright|[[Pontefract Town Hall]], now used as a registry office]]
For local government purposes, the town lies in the [[City of Wakefield]] and is administered by [[Wakefield Council]]. It is divided into two electoral wards, [[Pontefract North]] and [[Pontefract South]]. Pontefract South was represented by two Labour councillors and one Conservative councillor and North ward represented by three Labour councillors in 2022.<ref>{{cite web|title=Your Councillors by Ward|url=http://mg.wakefield.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0|publisher=Wakefield Council|access-date=18 June 2016}}</ref> 

From 1978 to 1997, ex-miner and former [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|NUM]] branch leader [[Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract|Geoff Lofthouse]] (18 December 1925&nbsp;– 1 November 2012) was [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for the [[Pontefract and Castleford (UK Parliament constituency)|Pontefract and Castleford constituency]]. During this time, he became Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. When the general election of 1997 was called, he stood down. He was made a peer on 11 June 1997.

[[Yvette Cooper]] was elected as the MP for the Pontefract and Castleford constituency at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]]. In her maiden speech to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], Cooper said:<blockquote>"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 [[Wentbridge|Vale of Wentbridge]] to the south of Pontefract. It was a great base from which to hassle the travelling [[fat cat (term)|fat cat]]s on the [[Great North Road (Great Britain)|Great North Road]]."</blockquote> She held a number of positions in the Labour governments up to 2010 and Shadow Cabinet roles (most notably [[Shadow Home Secretary]]) after the election of that year, but returned to the back benches after the [[2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|Labour leadership election of 2015]]. Pontefract and Castleford was merged with the [[Normanton (UK Parliament constituency)|Normanton constituency]] in a boundary change before the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010 general election]].

The seat, which had a history of mining and industry, has returned Labour MPs at [[general election]]s. Yvette Cooper polled 59.5% of the vote in the [[2017 United Kingdom general election|2017 general election]] and 48.1% of the vote in the [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019 general election]].