Reform-led Durham County Council says it’s cutting funding for Pride next year

Durham’s Reform-led County Council has said it will be cutting funding for Pride next year.

Durham County Council’s deputy leader, Darren Grimes, has criticised the event, which celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, saying money allocated for it in the past should be directed to key public services instead.

Whilst Darren said the event can still go ahead safely, he claimed in a post on X: “Durham Pride won’t be getting a single penny from this council next year.”

Founded in 2014, Durham Pride raises awareness about the issues affecting LGBTQ+ people in County Durham. Durham’s Pride celebrations took place on 24th and 25th May this year, attracting thousands of attendees, with many of those being Durham students.

The Reform deputy leader argued the event had “morphed into a travelling billboard for gender ideology and political activism that many in the gay community – myself included – want no part of.”

He continued: “The event can and will go ahead safely, but the 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.”

In the past, county councillors have supported Pride financially via their budgets, but it is understood the timing of elections this year meant it wasn’t possible.

Durham Miners’ Association (DMA) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) have teamed up with Durham Pride to support them in fundraising for future events.

Chairman of the DMA, Stephen Guy, said: “Reform councillors across County Durham have underestimated the resolve of the LGBT+ community and the support of allies across the trade union movement.”

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The chairman urged the trade union movement “to ramp up support for Durham Pride, which has been a target for closure since Reform was elected in County Durham”.

“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,” he added.

Regional Secretary for Northeast, Yorkshire and Humber TUC, said: “A strong and visible pride matters, it matters for the thousands of LGBT+ people who experience hate crimes each year, it matters to the young kid deciding if it is safe to come out, and it matters to those vulnerable LGBT+ people who are four times more likely to attempt suicide.”

A fundraising event will be held at Redhill’s, Durham Miners’ Hall, on 5th September next month.

Darren’s comments come after a rainbow pride flag was removed from County Hall in May, not long after Reform took control of the council.

Durham Pride and Darren Grimes have not yet responded to a request for comment.

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Featured image via Canva/@darrengrimes_ on X