What was claimed
Rotherham’s new mayor can’t speak English.
Our verdict
This is false. Mayor Rukhsana Ismail was born in Sheffield and can speak English fluently.
New mayor of Rotherham can speak English, contrary to online claims
A claim that the new Mayor of Rotherham, Rukhsana Ismail, can’t speak English is being shared online. But this is not true.
Social media posts are sharing a screenshot of an article from a website called The People’s Voice with the headline: “New Mayor of English town stuns audience by revealing she can’t speak English during inauguration”. It features a photo of Mayor Ismail in her mayoral attire following her recent appointment to the role for 2025/26 having previously served as deputy mayor.
It is not true that Mayor Ismail, who was born in Sheffield, can’t speak English. She can clearly be heard speaking fluently in English at council meetings, including those that she has chaired as mayor. The People’s Voice website has been the source of many claims we’ve previously debunked.
Mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Rukhsana Ismail told Full Fact that the claim is “entirely false”. She added: “I have lived and worked in Rotherham for many years, and I use English every day.
“This deliberate disinformation seeks to divide our borough, but it will not distract me from my civic duty.”
The article goes on to claim Mayor Ismail’s appointment to the role was “controversial because she did not receive a single vote from the electorate”, and several posts have also shared this in the caption. It’s worth noting that there are different types of mayors in the UK, and not all are elected to the role by the public.
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s mayor has that title by virtue of being chair of the council (rather than being directly elected by the public, like metro mayors) and undertakes ceremonial duties in that role. Ms Ismail was elected by the public to be a local councillor and has represented East Rotherham since 2021.
The metro mayor for South Yorkshire, including Rotherham, is Oliver Coppard, who was elected by the public in May 2024 for his second term in office.
You can find more of our work writing about false or unevidenced claims circulating on social media on our website, including the claim that mayors of several locations in the UK are Muslim or that the Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said people should learn Arabic to create harmony.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because Rotherham’s mayor Rukhsana Ismail can be heard speaking English fluently in videos of council meetings.