Mayor loses no confidence vote in airport row

Ros Jones was voted in as Mayor of Doncaster for a fourth consecutive term in May 2025

A Labour mayor has lost a symbolic "no confidence" vote put forward by a Reform UK councillor.

Doncaster Council members passed the motion of no confidence in Mayor Ros Jones by 38 votes to 14 at a meeting on Thursday, after it was filed by the authority's Reform UK leader Guy Aston.

Aston had repeatedly accused Jones of "misleading" the public over the expected return of commercial passenger flights to Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), not now due until 2028.

The vote "formally recorded the council has no confidence in the Mayor of Doncaster", while also acknowledging "it does not remove the mayor from office". Jones told the meeting she was "not going anywhere".

Jones had made the reopening of DSA the central pledge in her mayoral election campaign which saw her win a fourth consecutive term as Mayor of Doncaster in May.

The motion which went before councillors at a full meeting of the authority claimed she had "misled" the public over a pledge to reopen DSA by spring 2026, after it emerged this summer that the airport would not be fully operational before summer 2028.

Politicians, business leaders and campaigners gathered at Doncaster Sheffield Airport on 9 September to agree a £160m funding package

Reform UK has 36 councillors on Doncaster Council, a significant majority over Labour's 12 and the Conservatives' six.

Responding to the result of the motion, a Labour Party spokesperson said: "This is nothing more than political posturing from a group that is not serious about the future of Doncaster's airport."

The no confidence vote is purely symbolic, with the motion acknowledging in writing that "it does not alter the mayor's statutory powers, or contravene the Local Government Act 2000".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, after the motion was published Jones told the meeting: "Let me make this very simple for you, I'm not going anywhere."

"This motion is nothing more than a party political performative waste of time. It holds no power and will not change a thing," she said.

A Labour group spokesperson added that it was "taking huge steps forward to reopen the airport".

Jones recently voted along with other council leaders in South Yorkshire to approve funding of almost £160m to reopen DSA and bring passenger flights back to the region.

The agreement from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority means freight operations should start in 2027, with a fully operational airport planned for summer 2028.

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