Pride won’t be getting a single penny - Reform councillor confirms withdrawal of funding for Durham Pride
The Durham County Council ruling Reform Party have confirmed the annual Durham Pride event will no longer receive any public funding.
The news was confirmed by Reform UK Councillor Darren Grimes, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for finance, policy and communications.
The Durham Pride March is an annual event which takes place in the city, with this year’s 2025 march having taken place on Sunday May 25.
In a statement sent to the Echo, Mr Grimes said: “Durham Pride won’t be getting a single penny from this council next year.
“If Labour or the Lib Dems want to raid their members’ budgets to fund political street theatre, that’s on them — Reform will spend ours on the services everyone relies on, not on flying the latest alphabet flag for the professional offence industry.
“Pride stopped being a celebration of gay rights a long time ago. It’s morphed into a travelling billboard for gender ideology and political activism that many in the gay community — myself included — want no part of.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be bankrolling it. The event can and will go ahead safely, but Durham County Council isn’t an ATM for contested causes.
“Our residents deserve bins emptied, roads fixed, and services funded — not more council-sponsored politics in fancy dress.”
Mr Grimes highlighted that in 2025 the Council’s Festivals Team contributed £10,000 as part of work to support the wider cultural offer of County Durham linked to its UK City of Culture bid.
The move has been condemned by chair of Durham Pride, Mel Metcalf who has teamed up with Durham Miners Association to start fundraising to ensure next year’s 2026 event can go ahead.
The fundraiser will feature a special screening of the award-winning film Pride – the story of solidarity between striking miners and LGBT+ activists in 1984. Tickets are available via Durham Pride’s website.
The evening will host representatives from former miners, politicians, and special guest Mike Jackson, a key figure and one of the founders of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, for a panel discussion.
Mr Metcalf said: “The film is about standing united in the face of prejudice – capturing what many thought was Thatcher’s assault on mining communities.
“Today, as a new and growing prejudice threatens our trans siblings, it is again the Durham Miners and the trade union movement that stands with us.
“The film captures 1980s Britain perfectly, and we are honoured to have Mike Jackson with us to discuss the film and his experiences during the strike and its impact, decades later.”
Stephen Guy, Chair of the Durham Miners’ Association (DMA), added: “Pride events, since the first march in 1970, have had at their core protests to secure rights.
“The similarities of the challenges faced by the LGBT+ communities and the mining communities over the years are quite remarkable. Politicians who deem groups of people as unworthy of recognition or troublesome are often targets.
“The time has come for the Durham Miners Association, the NUM, and others in the trade union movement to ramp up support for Durham Pride, which has been a target for closure since the Reform was elected in County Durham.
“Reform councillors across County Durham have underestimated the resolve of the LGBT+ community and the support of allies across the trade union movement.”