Neil Wilby Media

A political group formed last year by a small number of Conservative Party renegades (read more here) look set to do what their colleagues failed to achieve, over the past thirteen years, and wrest overall control from the Labour Party in Oldham.

The Oldham Group, as they are now known, currently has three sitting councillors: Group Leader, Cllr Kamran Ghafoor, a popular local businessman best known for his ownership of the Café East restaurant in the town; Cllr Abdul Wahid and Cllr Muhammad Irfan. 

All represent the Hollinwood ward where, at last year’s ‘all-out’ local elections, they surprisingly swept the board in what, for many years, had been regarded as safe Labour territory.

Whilst there were losses and gains elsewhere, effectively the defeat of three leading Labour councillors, meant the total number of seats the Party held was reduced from 35 to 32. A majority of just two seats, increased to three with the recent, and controversial, recruitment of independent councillor, Aftab Hussain, to the Labour ranks (read more here).

The number of Labour councillors, just before the May, 2021 elections, was 45. So the drastic fall in their voter base in Oldham is very much against the national trend, which will probably see a Labour landslide in the next general election, either later this year or very early next.

For the Oldham Labour Group to lose 13 out of 45 seats, against that backdrop, is a failure of monumental proportions – and a fair indicator of the mistrust, disrespect, and often, derision they engender amongst a growing proportion of the local electorate. Not helped by senior figures in that Group, including their Leader, Cllr Arooj Shah, continuing to claim they are ‘doing a great job’, posting hundreds of pictures of herself on social media or blaming anyone and everyone else if they are exposed as not living up to their own PR guff (read more here).

The Oldham Group’s Cllr Irfan is up for re-election in May, 2024 as he polled the lowest votes of the three successful candidates in Hollinwood. He will be joined by TOG candidates contesting the Alexandra, Medlock Vale, St Mary’s and Waterhead wards, by Zaheer Ali, Shamas Altaf, Aisha Kouser and Naveed Chowhan respectively. An announcement about a candidate to contest the Chadderton South ward is expected shortly.

The seats in these wards that are up for re-election are all presently held by Labour councillors: Cllr Jenny Harrison, a former Mayor, who is retiring; Cllr Umar Nasheen; Cllr Ali Aqeel Salamat,  Cllr Ros Birch and Cllr Holly Harrison, respectively. There are six other Labour councillors facing re-election, the most vulnerable of whom is likely to be Oldham Labour Group Secretary, Cllr Josh Charters, defending a wafer thin majority in the St James’ ward (read the other reasons why here).

The fledgling party has already shown in the council chamber that straight talking and asking the awkward questions to which Oldham residents want answers will be at the heart of their election campaign. Which is likely to be at a much more robust tempo than their more established Opposition contemporaries, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. The former, in particular, led by ‘The Voice of Reason’, Cllr Howard Sykes MBE, preferring the rapier to the broadsword as a choice of political weaponry.

There is also a notable directness in their social media campaigning and a willingness to do the ‘dirty work’ others may shy away from. For example: “It’s high time that the public, and especially the Muslim community, became privy to the crooked practices of this incompetent, self-serving Labour council on local issues and mismanagement (to a criminal level) of public funds. Something The Oldham Group will be highlighting in due course”.

Whilst the fact that Oldham Council is incompetent and self-serving is unarguable, copious evidence elsewhere on this Neil Wilby Media website heavily underscores those points, the Labour administration will, presumably and robustly, deny, absent of evidence so far, any criminality regarding misuse of public funds, but cannot rebut that their Council has been taken to the verge of bankruptcy. As for alleged ‘crooked practices’, if that TOG message refers to industrial scale law-breaking in just one business area (information rights) then the ‘bandit’ Labour administration is assuredly guilty of that, too (read in full here).

A major blow to Labour is the transfer of allegiance by the popular, and highly astute, Omar Sharif to The Oldham Group. Omar headed the #TeamArooj campaign – one of the most effective ever seen in the Borough – that saw Cllr Shah sweep to victory in St Mary’s last year and, of course, a subsequent return to the Leader’s office from which she was displaced in May 2022. Another significant and influential community champion, and former leading #TeamArooj player, Tahir Mushtaq (whose brother Cllr Shaid Mushtaq is OMBC Deputy Leader), is also now aligned with TOG.

TOG campaigners’ links with probably the smartest election campaigner in the business, George Galloway MP, whom very recently cantered home in the Rochdale by-election, is also, potentially, another blow to the heart for Oldham Labour. The canny Scot has publicly vowed to take Labour control away from Boroughs adjacent to his new political base (read more here). But Cllr Ghafoor has made clear there is no formal backing from George, as yet.

The Oldham Conservatives, with little else to play for apart from mortally wounding the Labour administration, are set to repeat their tactical use, or withdrawal, of election candidates in wards where sitting Labour councillors are considered to be vulnerable to a vote swing to any other Party, or independent candidate, who could win the seat. 

Of one thing the reader can be certain, even set against some grim battles over the past few years, and dating back to when Arooj Shah was first displaced as a sitting Oldham councillor in St Mary’s 2016, this year’s local elections in the Borough will be fought like no other.

Page last updated: Sunday24th March, 2024 at 1255 hours

Thank you for reading and a polite request: If you feel this article is of value and in the public interest, and wish to make a contribution to the running costs of this website, it would be very much appreciated. Donations can made securely (and anonymously if required), via Buy Me A Coffee at this link or via PayPal at this link.

Corrections: Please let me know if there is a mistake in this article. I will endeavour to correct it as soon as possible.

Picture credit: The Oldham Group

Right of reply: If you are mentioned in this article and disagree with it, please let me have your comments. Provided your response is not defamatory it will be added to the article.

© Neil Wilby 2015-2024. Unauthorised use, or reproduction, of the material contained in this article, without permission from the author, is strictly prohibited. Extracts from, and links to, the article (or blog) may be used, provided that credit is given to Neil Wilby Media, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.