Doncaster Council: Reform UK councillor resigns - When is Bentley by-election? Who is running?
Reform UK councillor Sam Booth resigned from his new role for “personal reasons” – a by-election has been called, but what actually happens next?
Samuel Booth lasted two months before resigning on July 7, 2025, as a City of Doncaster Council representative for Bentley ward.
Booth is a farmer and the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands he felt unable to fulfil his work and council duties at the same time.
It leaves a vacancy in the council chamber and one that will need to be filled. Often, this comes via a by-election, but these votes are not automatic.
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Damian Allen, chief executive of Doncaster Council and the election returning officer, published a vacancy notice to the authority’s website on July 7, 2025.
It started the process to fill the role.
When is the by-election?
For a by-election to be called, the authority returning officer needed two electors from Bentley ward to write-in requesting an election.
On July 17, 2025, Mr Allen announced he had received those two requests and scheduled a by-election to take place on August 21, 2025.
In the likely event the election is contested, a vote will be held and those registered in Bentley will go to the polls.
If only one candidate is nominated, they will automatically be elected and there will be no vote.
Who is running in the by-election?
The full list of candidates was published by Doncaster Council after nominations closed on July 25, 2025.
The candidates running are:
- Venessa Aradia, Green Party
- Andy Hiles, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
- Ahsan Jamil, Workers Party of Britain
- Matthew Jones, Labour
- Christine Lunney, Conservatives
- Jane Nightingale, Independent
- Isaiah-John Reasbeck, Reform UK
- Giulia Savini, Liberal Democrats
What is the by-election timetable?
The nomination period to put yourself forward as a candidate for the election opened on July 18, 2025, and will close one week later at 4pm on July 25, 2025.
After that candidates and parties may begin campaigning in the ward.
New applications to register to vote must reach the electoral registration officer at Doncaster Council by midnight on August 5, 2025.
If you are already registered to vote at your address, you do not need to re-register.
How much will the Bentley ward by-election cost?
On July 15, 2025, Doncaster Council’s elections and democratic structures committee heard that a potential by-election in Bentley could cost “£25,000 or more”.
Trina Barber, electoral service manager at the council, told the committee they suspect postage costs – for poll cards and postal votes – which have doubled in the last year, could make up £15,000 of the total by-election cost.
Reform UK have had to defend two seats in by-elections since they won hundreds of seats at authorities across the country in May and have been unsuccessful in both.
However, the Bentley by-election will be the first in a ward they won from Labour in May 2025.
As the party in government in Westminster, Labour’s popularity nationally is low. The mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, blamed national unpopularity for the crushing council defeats her party suffered in May – falling from more than 40 councillors to just 12.