Dennis Jones #

Introduction #

Dennis Jones, the leader of Peterborough City Council and of its Labour group, resigned from the Labour Party on September 4, 2025, after a WhatsApp message surfaced in which he referred to grooming-gang victims as “poor white trash from Rotherham.” The comment appeared in a screenshot published by Daisy Blakemore-Creedon, an Independent councillor on the same council, from an exchange she had with Jones the previous month; within hours of its publication he had quit the party and lost the council leadership he had held through a period of national scrutiny of Peterborough’s child-abuse cases. Jones later “apologised wholeheartedly for the language,” the BBC reported, but the resignation stood and he remained on the council only as an independent backbencher.

Background Information #

Jones represented the Dogsthorpe ward on Peterborough City Council and led the city’s Labour group into the 2024-2025 council year, a period when Peterborough — like several English cities — was the subject of public debate over historical grooming-gang prosecutions and the language politicians use about their victims. The exchange at the center of his downfall dated to August 8, 2025, in a private conversation with Blakemore-Creedon, who represents the neighboring Fletton and Woodston ward. She later described the exchange as having been civil until that moment: “We were having a civil and respectful exchange, until that moment. His words took me aback, and I was honestly too stunned to respond in the moment. It felt like the air had been sucked out of the conversation.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations. The comment at the center of this section is quoted from a screenshot of a private WhatsApp exchange published by a fellow councillor and reported by the BBC; no court has adjudicated any claim arising from it, and Jones’s account is that the words were a rhetorical device against those who minimize the crimes.

On September 3, 2025, Blakemore-Creedon published a screenshot of her August 8 exchange with Jones in which he made the “poor white trash from Rotherham” remark about grooming-gang victims. In his own public response, Jones sought to frame the comment as a rhetorical device against those who minimize the crimes: “In trying to assert this view, I used language which some who wrongly dismiss or choose to ignore such evil crimes commonly use,” his statement read. “Let me be absolutely clear: vile perpetrators of sexual abuse must face the full force of the law, and we must all continue to fight for victims of such abhorrent crimes to get the justice they deserve.” The distinction persuaded no one in his party: within a day he had resigned from Labour, and a formal complaint about the comment had been received by the council, which said it was “considering its contents.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The consequences were immediate and layered. Jones resigned the Labour whip on September 4, 2025, left the council leadership, and continued as an independent councillor; the Labour group chose Cllr Dr Shabina Qayyum as its new leader to fight the coming council budget cycle. GB News framed the fall plainly: “Peterborough’s Labour council leader resigns after branding rape victims ‘white trash.’” Blakemore-Creedon, for her part, said the victims who contacted her after publication confirmed her decision: “Since sharing this last night, I have had victims reach out to me directly. Their voices, their pain, and their courage confirm what I knew deep down: speaking out was the right thing to do.” Local coverage led with the phrase itself, “poor white trash,” in every headline about the resignation — the words had become inseparable from his name within a day.

Current Status #

Jones serves out his Dogsthorpe term as an independent councillor, outside the Labour group he once led, with the city’s formal complaint process having been set in motion at the time of his resignation. Qayyum’s Labour group took the leadership in his place. His wholehearted apology for the language remains his last substantial public statement on the episode, and no report has suggested an imminent return to any group or cabinet role on the council.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

A decade-long run atop Peterborough Labour — council leader, group leader, the city’s most visible local politician — ended over eight words in a private message. The resignation removed him from the leadership at the exact moment the council needed a steady hand through budget season, handing the role to a successor chosen within weeks. For a politician whose portfolio was the city’s recovery and its services, the epitaph in every account of his tenure is now the phrase itself. The episode also made Blakemore-Creedon’s screenshot a local-government case study: one WhatsApp exchange, kept and published by the colleague who received it, undid a council leader in under twenty-four hours.