Decline and disillusionment in Doncaster: Could Reform win this ‘Red Wall’ council?

Labour-controlled Doncaster City Council faces a threat from Reform UK this Thursday. Left Foot Forward visited the city to see how locals plan to vote.

Doncaster, also known as ‘Donny’, sits within what was historically – and for now still remains – Labour’s ‘red wall’. But 73-year-old Bob, who lives in Wheatley, is disgruntled with Labour, and doesn’t think any of the political parties care much about the local community.

“Doncaster is a former mining city, so everyone says my dad voted Labour, and his dad voted Labour before him, without looking at what they’ve actually done,” he says.

This is a place still shaped by Margaret Thatcher’s decision to close coal mines, citing their declining economic viability, alongside her desire to weaken the power of trade unions, particularly the National Union of Mineworkers — a policy that ultimately triggered the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike. Labour’s historic strength here was built on its close ties to the unions and the working-class communities they represented.

The council has been under Labour control almost continuously since 1974, aside from a period of no overall control between 2004 and 2010. Ros Jones, the incumbent Labour mayor, has been in post since May 2013. But a recent Electoral Calculus poll for the Telegraph has predicted that Reform UK, which has candidates standing in every ward on 1 May, could take control of the council. 

I visited Doncaster, the only Labour-controlled council up for election on 1 May, to see how locals are planning to vote.

‘They’ve been in power too long’

Bob has already posted his vote—for Reform. He thinks all of the main political parties are the same and doesn’t think Reform would be much different, but his feeling is that Labour’s time is up. “They [Labour] want getting rid of. They don’t care. They’ve been in power too long,” he says.

“Ros Jones just wants to take a picture and look pretty in the newspaper,” he adds. 

But his frustration is not just about the photo opps, Bob, a retired shopkeeper, feels politicians have watched on while Doncaster has steadily gone downhill over the years. He points to a quieter city centre, and to the outdoor market where we’re standing, which has lots of empty stalls. 

Like several others I speak to, it is not long before Bob raises concerns about immigration. He mentions Copley Road, a street near Doncaster Market, where there are Romanian shops and Turkish Barbers — a road where he once ran a business himself.

Akin to claims made by Reform, he says these shops are cash-only and indicates they “must be to do with money laundering”. Bob feels the council hasn’t done anything to ensure that these shops ‘integrate’ with the wider community. 

Concerns about immigration

Eileen, 87, who lives in Tickhill, is one of the lifelong Labour voters Bob refers to. She will be voting Labour and for Ros Jones as mayor.

She has mixed views about the council’s work. Eileen criticises some “stupid planning decisions” in the city, “making cycle lanes and taking a two-lane road on a busy road making it into one-lane, I think that’s been absolutely stupid”, but overall she says “they’ve done a good job”.

She is particularly happy with the council’s efforts to re-open Doncaster Sheffield airport, which closed in 2022. The council has taken out a £105 million loan to re-open the airport, and will also receive £30m in funding from the South Yorkshire Mayor.

Ros Jones, the incumbent Labour mayor of Doncaster City Council.

But immigration is where her tone shifts. “I’m not being racist when I say this,” she says, “but I’m worried about the amounts of immigrants there are in Doncaster.” For context, according to the 2021 census, around 32,100 of Doncaster residents were born outside the UK, which represents just over 10% of the total population. 

Eileen doesn’t explain what her concrete worries about immigration are, but she says she doesn’t like taking buses or coming to the town centre as there are “lots of migrants” and she thinks they “don’t have respect for the Doncaster people”. 

She then talks about what she sees as Doncaster’s decline. One of the city’s shopping centres, Frenchgate, “is nearly empty, they’ve taken all the lovely shops,” she says, comparing it to her childhood, when her grandfather would bring her to the bustling cattle market and racecourse.

“I seem to think that people believe South Yorkshire is a very poor area, and it isn’t,” she adds.

Little faith in Labour

Andrea, 47, says she is particularly worried about the NHS, as she has been on a waiting list for over two years for shoulder surgery.

Andrea says she will still have to wait as the procedure is considered “non-urgent” and she feels that people from ethnic minority backgrounds receive higher priority in the NHS, echoing another anti-migrant argument Reform has made about asylum seekers getting ‘priority access’ to NHS treatment.

She says she’ll vote Reform as she thinks “they’re not going to go back on everything like Labour are doing at the moment”. Andrea is most worried about begging, drug use in the city centre, crime rates, and the fact “you don’t know who’s English”.

Worries about Reform

Others are worried about Nigel Farage’s party gaining votes in Doncaster at the local election, but feel Labour isn’t doing much to differentiate themselves from the Tories and Reform nationally. 

Anthony Cox, 25, is concerned about Reform. “There’s a lot of push for the Reform Party, and I’m like, no thank you,” he tells Left Foot Forward. As a result, he says he’ll be voting tactically rather than with his heart.

Cox says “I’m not happy with the national government, I think they’re terrible,” but he thinks the Labour mayor, Jones, is doing a good job. Ideally, he’d vote Green, but he doesn’t think they have a real chance of winning, so he’ll vote Labour. 

“I’m not happy, but it’s what it’s come down to really,” he shrugs. 

As for Reform, he says: “All of their campaign materials have blatant lies on them and if anyone does any research, it’s obvious these people are just making things up.”

Reform’s mayoral candidate, Forex trader Alexander Jones, is running on a platform that claims the council is ‘broken’, with a focus on making it ‘leaner’ and more efficient, while also working to improve safety on Doncaster’s streets. 

Cox adds: “I don’t want them in because they’ll just cut all our services to death and we don’t have many services as it is.”

Furthermore, he describes Reform’s rhetoric about migrants as “barbaric”.

However, he doesn’t rule out the possibility of Reform taking control of the council. “There’s so many candidates that I think it’s possible. The national government isn’t helping, basically they’re no different from the previous government.”

On Doncaster’s high street, mayoral candidate for the Health and Social Care Party, Doug Wright, stands with a megaphone, telling passersby about his 30 years working for Doncaster Council and his experience as a Unison branch secretary.

He is standing in Thursday’s local election as an “alternative candidate” promising to fight for local people.

‘Reform can’t do anything for this council’

“Both political parties [Labour and the Tories] have treated people in Doncaster like dirt,” he tells Left Foot Forward.

Wright explains that his campaign is anti-Reform: “Most important for me, is don’t support Reform. As far as I’m concerned, they are what they are – a national organisation that can’t do anything for this council.”

“They don’t even mention local people, it’s a sad state of affairs.”

He adds that Reform doesn’t offer policies, but are tapping into immigration and political discontent to gain support: “All they do is pass the word around, ‘Oh, immigration!’ ‘Yeah I’ll vote for them’, and that’s all it is.”

Wright says that in a divided political landscape, the NHS is the only shared ground that remains: “We must defend our people and health and social care, it’s the only thing we can join together on.”

Reform’s anti-immigration stance is clearly cutting through to people in Doncaster, tapping into the existing feeling of discontent in the South Yorkshire city. Many spoke of Doncaster’s “better times” and a steady decline due to the closure of its coal mines from the 1990s onwards. Some said they felt politics had let them down, while others expressed no interest in voting at all. However, those who said they were backing Reform didn’t seem to have a sense of what the right-wing party would do differently or how they would address this perceived ‘decline’.

Meanwhile, the national picture is doing little to boost Labour’s prospects. Voters cited Labour’s decision to means test winter fuel payments, along with a general feeling that the party’s policies are failing to make life easier for ordinary people, as key reasons for their dissatisfaction. After nearly 50 years of backing Labour, many in Doncaster feel their loyalty has not been rewarded.

Yet, with Reform UK’s campaign barely mentioning local people and issues, and instead focusing on divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric to explain away the community’s challenges, Doncaster is unlikely to see the change they’re hoping for.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward