Neil Wilby Media

The newly elected Member of Parliament for Rochdale, George Galloway MP, has signalled his intention to take on the Labour controlled council in neighbouring Oldham.

Widely regarded as one of the most opaque, lawless – and some say corrupt – local authority in the country, it is run by a Keir Starmer protegé in the shape of Cllr Arooj Shah.

Whilst deposed from her council seat in 2022/23, he facilitated her elevation to Chair of the National Constitutional Committee, a body that exercises disciplinary functions within the Party.

An appointment made, aligning with her national political ambitions (she craves a seat in the House of Lords), despite Cllr Shah’s own palpable integrity deficit and overseeing an unethical, unprofessional and culturally discriminative local authority (described with ample justification elsewhere on the website as a ‘bandit council’) with a long list public interest questions, put to her on a wide range of issues by Neil Wilby Media, piling up in her inbox (read more here).

Council Leader Shah is also a close friend of Starmer’s noisy but hopelessly ineffective Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, MP for nearby Ashton-under-Lyne (pictured above third from right), who is another senior Labour figure likely to feel the heat of the almost unique, and exceptionally powerful, Galloway oratory in Parliament. 

The firebrand Scot is implacably opposed to the Leader of the Opposition and his promised presence in the Borough as very probably the country’s smartest election operator may spell the end of Labour domination in Oldham that stretches back to 2011.

Twelve Labour councillors face re-election on 3rd May, 2024 and there is a further Labour seat up for grabs following the retirement from local politics of this year’s Oldham Mayor, Dr Zahid Chauhan OBE (pictured above between Ms Rayner and Oldham West MP, Jim McMahon).

More than a few of those thirteen will be sitting uncomfortably this morning, particular those holding slender majorities or defending seats in the Borough’s inner wards where the Asian population is significant and Gaza – and disquiet at the stance of Starmer (and Rayner) – are more or less the only talking points.

Oldham Labour currently holds 33 of the 60 seats on the council, having recently added a controversial independent councillor best known as an anti-LGBTQ campaigner, Cllr Aftab Hussain. Despite Cllr Shah sitting as Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Equality Lead (read more here).

The picture beneath the headline of this article was taken at a Labour Party campaign launch for their Rochdale by-election candidate, Azhar Ali. He was subsequently suspended by the Party and suffered abject humiliation on polling day as George Galloway swept to an almost landslide victory.

Almost every single notable Oldham Labour figure features on that image and it is a near certainty that George Galloway will not be slow to remind them of their poor political choices and judgement – and notable lack of due diligence.

Notably, Cllr Shah. Whom professes to be a close and long term friend of Ali, a former Leader of both Pendle and Lancashire County Council – and, it is said, aware of the remarks that he made on the Gaza conflict before he was selected as MP candidate.  

Page last updated: Sunday 3rd March, 2024 at 0815 hours

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Picture credit: Oldham Labour

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