Hatfield Town Council votes to remove deputy mayor over ‘racist’ social media posts
Councillor Mark Broadhurst was removed as deputy mayor of Hatfield at a meeting on Monday evening
A Doncaster town council has agreed to remove its deputy mayor after he was found to have shared “racist, islamophobic, anti-semitic and highly offensive” social media posts.
Councillor Mark Broadhurst was removed as deputy mayor of Hatfield Town Council (HTC) in a meeting on Monday evening (October 13).
He was removed from the position by a vote of seven in favour, to six against, with clashes between councillors after the result.
In a recording of the meeting shared to Facebook, Cllr Broadhurst can be heard clashing with Cllr Isaiah-John Reasbeck, who voted in favour of the proposal.
Cllr Reasbeck can be heard saying: “You had the chance to apologise, which you should’ve done because, as I say, the posts were racist.
“Although you may have meant them as a joke, you should have at least apologised for the offence caused. You didn’t even co-operate with the investigation. If you had, I would have felt some sympathy.”
Broadhurst can be heard reminding Reasbeck of his own controversial social media posts, which the 19-year-old posted in August 2024.
Reasbeck responded that he was not a councillor on any authority at the time and hadn’t signed a code of conduct, which Broadhurst had.
Like Broadhurst, Reasbeck is also a councillor on the City of Doncaster Council. He was interviewed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service about his social media history, during which he said he no longer stood-by what he’d shared.
Turning the debate back onto the now-former deputy mayor, Reasbeck said: “If you turned up to the council hearing and defended yourself or apologised, I’d have some sympathy, but you didn’t even bother. You didn’t bother to show up.
“It’s not just that those posts were offensive, racist or whatever, it’s that you didn’t bother to give the time of day to defend yourself… You didn’t even defend yourself in this meeting.”
Broadhurst remains a councillor on HTC and a councillor for Hatfield ward on the City of Doncaster Council.
Following complaints from two members of the public, Broadhurst was investigated by Doncaster Council for potential breaches of its councillor Code of Conduct in relation to posts he had shared on Facebook.
The investigation concluded he had breached the code in four areas and alleged Broadhurst had “discriminated unlawfully” against people of Muslim faith.
Doncaster Council’s audit hearings sub-committee accepted the investigation’s findings, adding the posts were “clearly racist, islamophobic, anti-semitic and highly offensive”.
The panel said Broadhurst was “not fit” to be deputy mayor of HTC, nor to sit on its personnel committee, and recommended that HTC remove him from both positions.
After a majority voted to remove Broadhurst as deputy mayor, Cllr Reasbeck nominated Cllr James Hart as the new Hatfield deputy mayor.
Cllr Hart’s nomination was approved by a majority vote and he will now deputise to the incumbent Mayor of HTC, Cllr Mick Glynn, who voted against the proposal to remove Broadhurst as deputy mayor and against the nomination of Hart.
Councillor Mark Broadhurst has been approached for a statement.