Narrow victory for Labour in Doncaster mayoral election

Labour has retained the mayoralty of Doncaster by just 698 votes ahead of the Reform Party.

Its incumbent candidate Ros Jones received 23,805 votes while Reform’s Alexander Jones picked up 23,107 votes.

The Conservative candidate, former MP Nick Fletcher, was pushed into third place with 18,982 votes.

Overall turnout in the election was 32.27 per cent.

Jones, who was first elected in 2013 and and was returned in 2017 and 2021, told the BBC that Doncaster had: “bucked the national trend, beaten the polls and returned a Labour mayor.”

She added the election results demonstrated the government needed to be “listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street,” warning: “The people of Doncaster know how hard life can be.

“I think they [the government] need to look again as putting up the cost of national insurance is hitting some of the smaller businesses and of course the PIP which many people are worried about now.”