The Brexit Party’s Doncaster conference venue received £1 million in EU funding

Nigel Farage and colleagues at the UKIP conference at Doncaster Racecourse in 2014, which has received £1 million in EU funds and which will host the 2019 Brexit Party conference. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Archive/PA Images - Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

Political conference season is nearly upon us as the Brexit clock ticks down, but one party should be thanking the European Union for the £1 million upgrade to its venue.

That party? Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, which local paper the Doncaster Free Press reports will be gathering at a revamped Doncaster Racecourse.

Between 2000 and 2006, South Yorkshire was a recipient of £820 million of European Structural Funds as part of the Objective 1 programme, which funnels cash into the most deprived regions across the EU. One million of this went specifically towards Doncaster Racecourse’s conference and exhibition facilities.

Despite this, Doncaster voted to leave the EU by 69% in the referendum, perhaps explaining why its racecourse conference centre is a favourite with Farage. He also took UKIP there in 2015 and didn’t seem too worried about the EU connection back then.

According to the Spectator’s columnist Steerpike, a UKIP source had said: “We are entirely at ease, after all, we only get 50 pence in the pound for what we put into the EU. We are delighted the racecourse could wring it out of them.”