Reform UK Doncaster leader's grooming gangs comments criticised

A meeting of the City of Doncaster Council turned into a tense, frosty debate after the leader of Reform UK called on senior Labour figures to resign.

Councillor Howard Rimmer, the Reform UK group leader, said the Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones and Councillor Sue Farmer, cabinet member for children, young people and families, should resign for attending a Stand-Up To Racism (SUTR) protest on August 29th.

He claims SUTR, who were staging a counter-protest to an anti-illegal immigration march by named ‘Unite The Right’, ‘support mass immigration’.

Coun Rimmer, who has been Reform UK leader for just over four months, said Mayor Jones and Coun Farmer were now unable to undertake their roles and protect young girls from grooming gangs, which he said were ‘majority Pakistani men’ – a disputed claim.

Mayor Jones had left the meeting before Coun Rimmer’s comments. However, Coun Farmer said she would not resign and accused the Reform leader of making a number of ‘wrong’ claims.

In a statement, Mayor Jones responded: “Racism has no place in our communities, our workplaces, or our politics. It divides people, spreads mistrust and ignores a simple truth: every person deserves dignity and respect, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or background. History has shown us the damage that prejudice causes when it goes unchallenged.

“We have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Global millionaires and billionaires stoking up division through misinformation on social media, blaming anyone but themselves for the state of the world.

“As the leader of the Reform group I expected better from Coun Rimmer than him making factually inaccurate racist statements and stirring up divisive misinformation.”

The 2026 government review by Baroness Casey found that national data on the ethnicity of grooming gang offenders was ‘poor’ and ‘not good enough to support any statements about the ethnicity of group-based child sexual exploitation offenders at the national level’.

Both this review, and a December 2020 report by the Home Office, conclude Black and Asian men are over-represented in grooming gang offenders, although the earlier report did find ‘that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white’.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Coun Rimmer stood by his comments.

Reform UK Doncaster said the allegation that Coun Rimmer’s comments were ‘racist’ was ‘an extremely serious allegation’.

“Political disagreement should be answered with facts and evidence, not inflammatory labels,” the statement said.

It continued: “[Coun Rimmer]’s criticism was that, at a time of intense public concern about serious sexual violence and attacks against women and children, senior political figures should be listening to those legitimate concerns and ensuring that they are addressed, rather than allowing legitimate concerns about crime and public safety to be dismissed or conflated with extremism.”