Neil Wilby Media

A council leader who is becoming widely known as the ‘Cover-Up Queen’ managed to mire herself in controversy over Christmas, whilst most politicians retreated to their family and friends for some welcome peace and goodwill.

Cllr Arooj Shah, who claims to follow the Muslim faith devoutly and, for the next few months at least, heads up crisis-torn Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, put out a seasonal greeting across the Council’s news and social media channels that deliberately excluded the word CHRISTMAS. 

An autocratic, but mostly clueless, micro-manager, the self-adoring, designer-clad Cllr Shah has surrounded herself, both within the Civic Centre and beyond, with tame sycophants and a collection of senior paid officers whose mediocrity, self-interest and carelessness is mind-numbing. None more so than those paid vast salaries to advise her on communications and strategy.

This latest, and insanely crass, post is just one of scores of recent examples.

Repeatedly urged earlier in the year, by journalist Neil Wilby, the author of this article, to take on external public relations and crisis management guidance, Cllr Shah instead chose to blunder from crisis to crisis, relying on what is available internally at the council and within her own Labour Party Group. 

If, as expected, she is ousted as Leader at the next Oldham Labour Group annual general meeting, following the local elections in early May, 2024, she may well reflect on the wisdom of ignoring such counsel.

Holding the world record, for a local politician, for the number of Oldham Council, Labour Group and self-promoting posts on social media, currently standing at well over 200 since she returned to the Leader’s office in May this year, will be scant consolation as she sits amongst the back-benchers in the civic chamber as part of a local authority with no overall political control.

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Page last updated: Tuesday 26th December, 2023 at 0705 hours

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