Trade unions have stepped in to save the annual Durham Pride festival after the local Reform council withdrew thousands in funding from the event.
Having first been held in 2014, Durham Pride has gone on to attract 20,000 people to its county-wide event, with the local council’s Corporate Affairs department usually contributing £2,500.
However, after Reform took control of Durham county council in 2025, the party promised that not a “single penny” would be provided to the event in 2026.
Durham County Council’s deputy leader, Darren Grimes – yes, that Darren Grimes – said in August last year that the money would instead go towards “the services everyone relies on, not on flying the latest alphabet flag for the professional offence industry.”
He wrote on X that Pride was no longer a celebration of gay rights and had instead “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,” he added.
Step forward the trade unions of Durham, who have managed to raise more than £15,000 for the event to ensure it goes ahead.
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And thanks to their huge fundraising efforts, it looks set to be the biggest Durham Pride festival yet.
In a post on social media sharing the news, the TUC said that this year’s Durham Pride will be “bigger than ever.”
“In the 1980s, the LGBT+ community raised thousands of pounds to help striking miners and their families,” they said.
“When we stick up for each other, we can achieve anything.”
Here, here!
One of the biggest donors was the trade union Equity, which gave an impressive £7,200 to the cause.
The union’s president, Lynda Rooke, said Equity will “not allow a Pride event that brings work for our members and celebrates our performers to die.
“I am proud to announce that Equity has stepped up. What’s even better is that this new agreement, signed between Durham Pride and Equity, will ensure decent standards for all our members and our workers.
“We are sending a message to Reform and any other group that is planning on attacking the cultural sector, which is: we see you, we will fight you, and we will succeed.”
Accepting the brilliant donation from Equity, the Durham Pride organiser Mel Metcalf said: “I don’t think you realise how much this really means to a small charity like ours… It’s our 15th year and what we’ve learned is that nobody can stop Pride.
“They said Pride won’t happen, Pride is finished, Pride is done. But they don’t control Pride, we do. So show up for Pride and get the banners out!”