Doncaster elections 2025: Reform UK candidate says party have a "mandate", despite losing mayoral race

The 30-year-old spoke with the Local Democracy Reporting Service just as counting got underway for seats on the City of Doncaster Council, where he is contending in Kirk Sandall and Edenthorpe.

He said: “It was a good result. I’m proud of it. We did the best we could.

“A lot of learning. We fought a really positive campaign. It was definitely an experience. We just focussed on ourselves and we did the best we could.”

Jones said he was feeling “good” about his chances to be elected as a councillor today and he “did all the work I could in Edenthorpe… we’re reasonably confident”.

Reform UK candidates elected to the City of Doncaster Council today, the party will be expected to put forward a group leader.

The LDRS asked Jones if he would consider himself for the role following his campaign to be Mayor.

“I think for running as Mayor, I have shown leadership,” he said.

He said he wasn’t too concerned about taking on the official group leader role, but he would “do my best to support everybody”.

Jones narrowly lost out on becoming the elected Mayor of Doncaster to Labour’s Ros Jones.

He was 698 votes short of Ros Jones’ total, with third-placed Nick Fletcher nearly 5,000 votes behind him.

Mayor Ros Jones will soon begin her fourth consecutive term as Mayor of Doncaster. By the time her new term ends, she will have been mayor for 16 years.