"The Conservative Party has lost its way": Ex-Doncaster councillor slams party after local election defeats

Gary Stapleton said he will continue his political work as an independent on Stainforth Town Council.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I often felt that people were doing things policy-wise that I was being identified as being aligned to and I wasn’t.

“The Conservative Party has lost its way for the last five years or so. I was being defined by their conduct or behaviour.

“I’m representing a mining community and there’s so much animosity and distrust and dislike for things that happened a long time ago.”

Stapleton was a city councillor for Stainforth and Barnby Dun before last week’s elections, when the ward elected two Reform UK candidates, Karl Hughes and Neil Wood.

He said: “Reform have taken over the council but it’s based on national politics. I’m not that fussed about national politics. I serve my community. I need to look at local issues, not national.

“I have a lot of friends on both sides of the political fence and if they were honest they would be feeling how I do.

“People weren’t crying [at the election results] about losing their seats. They were crying about losing £12,000-a-year.”

Reform UK surged to a huge majority on the City of Doncaster Council, but the directly elected mayor controls the council. Last week, Labour’s Ros Jones was re-elected Mayor of Doncaster.

Stapleton offered a damning verdict on Reform UK’s rise across the UK.

He said: “The last five or six years the Tories have massively let the country down and Labour have done no better. The pair of them have created a vacuum for the naughty boy at the back to come in to.

“I still think it’s a protest vote and I think some of them will not be there by the next election.

“No matter what they think of Ros Jones – don’t underestimate her.”

The Conservatives were reduced to just six councillors on Doncaster Council after the elections, with Labour winning just 12 seats.

A spokesperson for Reform UK Doncaster said: “The election in Doncaster proved that we are not a protest party. Voters bought into our positive vision for the city and the country and voted for real change in Doncaster by making us the largest group on the council.

“We have made gigantic strides in a very short period of time, standing in 12% of seats in the last set of local elections to winning this year’s elections – the first time any party other than the Tories or Labour have done so in modern British political history.”