Doncaster Reform UK councillor demoted after setting up "duplicate" airport company
Councillor David Knight set up a ‘Fly Doncaster’ branded company - in an apparent attempt to cash in on the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport
Last updated 23rd Sep 2025
A Reform UK councillor who co-founded a new ‘Fly Doncaster’ branded company for “financial gain” will lose his committee positions, his party has said.
Councillor David Knight was listed as a director for ‘Fly Doncaster (Auxiliary Services) Ltd’, alongside his party colleague and Reform UK deputy leader, Cllr Rachel Reed.
The business, established on Companies House on September 18, 2025, shares the first part of its name with the “arms-length” company created by the council to manage Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA).
Its incorporation led to confusion after sources within the City of Doncaster Council confirmed the new business had “absolutely nothing to do with us”.
However, Cllr Jason Charity, the Reform UK group spokesperson, confirmed it was “not something that Reform UK would have approved”.
He said: “It was Cllr Knight’s idea. He thought that the auxiliary services around DSA have not been established and he thought there was a business opportunity in it.”
The party accepted that Cllr Knight had created the business, which would have dealt directly with the council, for “financial gain”.
Whilst the founding of the company was entirely “legal”, Reform UK said, it was not something elected councillors should be doing.
Cllr Charity added the “big mistake” Knight made was “not consulting with local leadership or national HQ” where the idea would have been immediately rejected.
“We’ve withdrawn his committee privileges and he won’t sit on any committees,” Charity said.
It means Cllr Knight will no longer sit on the overview and scrutiny management committee (OSMC), nor chair the health and adult social care overview and scrutiny panel.
“He wasn’t intending to hide behind it and nothing he acted on has been confidential,” Charity concluded.
Despite being registered as being 50/50 partners on the new business, the party has rallied to the defence of deputy leader, Cllr Rachel Reed – who chairs the OSMC.
Charity said: “For Rachel, we have taken advice on her ability to chair the OSMC and based on her explanation, it would not have hindered her.”
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Knight had suggested the idea to Reed as she was rushing to a committee meeting. Reed is said to have quickly agreed to the idea.
“She didn’t think it through in the rush,” Cllr Charity said.
“She said it sounded like a great idea and before she knew it, she was registered on the company,” Charity added.
Reform UK group leader, Cllr Guy Aston, has reportedly had a number of conversations with Cllr Knight following the misstep.
Knight is set to de-register the company, with the party adding that Reed has already “set the ball rolling to resign as a director”.
The episode follows the unanimous approval of £160million of public money for the reopening of DSA, which closed in 2022.
Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones, the South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard and the Labour leaders of the region’s three other councils – Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham – agreed the funding at a South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) Board meeting on September 9, 2025.
Reform UK subsequently tabled a motion of no-confidence in Mayor Ros Jones, in which she was accused of misleading people over DSA.
The motion, seconded by Cllr Reed, suggested Jones knew the Spring 2026 target for passenger flights was not attainable, but kept it secret for electoral purposes – which the mayor denies.
Reform UK and the Conservatives combined to pass the motion in an overwhelming majority over Labour’s 13-strong group on the council.
However, the motion was purely symbolic and could not remove the mayor from office, nor curb her statutory powers.