Doncaster's Labour Mayor calls for Starmer to go - after issuing warning following 2025 elections
Ros Jones, who has been the Mayor of Doncaster for 13 years, said the PM was “a nice bloke” but that the Labour Party needed to think about new national leadership.
The Mayor of Doncaster has called for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “consider his position” after a series of catastrophic election results in South Yorkshire and across the country.
Ros Jones, who has been the Mayor of Doncaster for 13 years, said the PM was “a nice bloke” but that the Labour Party needed to think about new national leadership.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on May 11, 2026, Mayor Jones said: “I do think he needs to reconsider his position, but it shouldn’t be rushed overnight. We need to ensure we get the right person leading us.”
However, she refused to say Starmer was definitively not the right leader for the Labour Party.
She said: “It could be Keir Starmer, it could be some opposition person coming forward and wanting the job.”
More than 80 Labour MPs have come forward calling on the PM to stand down since Mayor Jones’ comments to the LDRS, including Sally Jameson and Lee Pitcher – who represent Doncaster Central and Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, respectively.
In a further statement to the LDRS, Mayor Jones joined calls for Starmer to set out a timetable for a leadership contest which would “ensure that all potential candidates have the opportunity to stand”.
She said: “Patience is wearing thin, the Labour Government needs to take control and deal with the problems in left-behind communities like Doncaster.
“Working people and businesses are struggling yet seeing multi-millionaires and billionaires avoiding tax. Energy companies are making vast profits whilst bills are set to rise in the coming months.
“What we need is fairness, where work pays and people can afford to keep the roof over their head, pay the bills and have a good life. It should not be a lot to expect.”
After she narrowly won re-election as Mayor in May 2025, Jones issued a strong warning to Keir Starmer to be “listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people”.
Her comments became headline news for national newspapers and broadcasters as Reform swept councils across the country, including gaining an overall majority in Doncaster, making them the main opposition to Jones’ administration.
The City of Doncaster Council uses a directly-elected mayor system of local government, which sees around 95 per cent of decisions made by the Mayor, who is not a councillor, and their hand-picked cabinet.
Jones won re-election by less than 700 votes to Reform UK’s Alexander Jones, who was subsequently elected a councillor for Edenthorpe and Kirk Sandall ward. It was the smallest majority of the four mayoral elections Ros Jones has contested.
There were no elections in Doncaster in 2026, as the four year terms the Mayor and councillors were elected to end in 2029, however, Reform UK saw victories elsewhere in South Yorkshire.
Nigel Farage’s party took an overall majority in Barnsley, making it the first council under Reform UK control in the region.
They also won 12 seats in Sheffield, where Labour also lost seats to the Greens, including the council’s leader, Tom Hunt, who lost his election in Walkley ward.