"Racist" Doncaster councillor blasted over attacks on Muslims invited to city mosque

Last week, a conduct hearing for sitting Doncaster councillor Mark Broadhurst deemed he was “not fit” to be deputy mayor of Hatfield Town Council after details of the posts emerged.

Coun Broadhurst was sanctioned by members of the City of Doncaster Council audit hearings sub-committee, after it accepted the conclusions of an investigation which determined Broadhurst had discriminated “unlawfully” against people of Muslim faith.

The investigation centred around two “highly offensive” social media posts from March 2024.

Now Imam Habeeb Minhas has invited Coun Broadhurst to Doncaster’s Jamia Masjid Sultania mosque, which is based in Hyde Park, to discuss his comments.

He said: “It is an invite to him to come and speak to myself face to face – and any objections he has against Islam he can openly discuss.

“I'm happy to help build his profile back up by supporting his growth in education.

"I can offer him diversity, equality and inclusion training. If he is willing to entertain the idea of wanting to learn and speak face to face - most people are okay to use the keyboard and slur out their unconscious biases and uneducated comments but never pluck up the courage to have face to face dialogues.

“I don't blame anyone for having such objections and reservations about Islam - the only thing I do blame them for is not reaching out to actual Muslim Imams to discuss and ask questions to find out how authentic these claims are.”

At the time of the posts, Broadhurst was a serving councillor on Hatfield Town Council, where he currently serves as deputy mayor to another controversial figure, Mayor Mickl Glynn.

The conduct hearing, chaired by City of Doncaster Councillor Jason Charity, accepted the findings in full and implemented eight sanctions on Broadhurst.

He said: “This sub-committee unanimously condemns the actions of Cllr Broadhurst. The comments made by Cllr Broadhurst were clearly racist, islamophobic, anti-semitic and highly offensive.”

“It is our view that he is not fit to hold the role of deputy mayor of Hatfield Town Council nor hold a position on that Council’s personnel committee and we recommend to Hatfield Town Council that he be removed from both roles,” Charity later added.

Broadhurst was re-elected as a Hatfield Town councillor in May 2025 and was also elected as a Reform UK councillor for Hatfield ward on the City of Doncaster Council.

Party leadership removed the whip from Broadhurst over his social media posts weeks after the election.

The committee accepted the findings that Broadhurst, who did not attend the hearing, breached the Councillors Code of Conduct in four areas.

Mr Concannon concluded the now-independent councillor failed to treat members of the public with respect; discriminated “unlawfully” against people of Muslim faith; brought his role as a councillor and the council into disrepute; and failed to cooperate with the investigation into his conduct – all separate breaches of the code.

Cllr Charity revealed the committee had imposed eight sanctions on Broadhurst, including that he be “censured and reprimanded for his actions”.

The committee also decided to recommend Broadhurst not be appointed to any committee positions or membership of outside bodies for the remainder of his electoral term – until May 2029.

Additionally, the committee recommended that Broadhurst undertake equalities training at the expense of Hatfield Town Council and it be reported to the Doncaster Council monitoring officer, Scott Fawcus, when it is completed.

Cllr Charity said: “As elected councillors our role is to serve all of the residents in our wards regardless of their politics, beliefs, creed or ethnicity and this is a role which we are proud to uphold as elected members.

“The actions of Cllr Broadhurst, including his contempt for the investigation process, risk damaging the reputation of this Council and all elected members.

“In our view, Cllr Broadhurst should have apologised for any offence caused by his appalling social media posts and publicly committed to working on behalf of all residents. He chose not to do this.”

Earlier this month, the Imam also inivted a newly-elected Reform UK councillor who posted on social media that people should be “f***ing terrified” of Islam to visit the mosque in Hyde Park.

19-year-old Isaiah-John Reasbeck, who was elected in August’s Bentley by-election received intense backlash on social media following the remarks.

In one post on X, dated August 6, 2024, he wrote: “Bradford has one of the biggest Muslim populations in Europe it is also one of the biggest s***holes in Europe draw your own conclusions.”

He then followed it up on the same day when he wrote in response to another post that people should be “f***ing terrified” of Islam."