Neil Wilby Media

Despite local newspaper, The Oldham Times, publishing an article earlier this week asserting, via an anonymous source, that the Labour Party in Oldham will run a minority administration under its present Leader, Cllr Arooj Shah, the reality looks quite different.

At present, and this may change by the time the first council meeting of the new municipal year takes place on 22nd May, 2024, Labour hold 27 seats. That number includes the Mayor, Cllr Zahid Chauhan OBE, who would only cast a vote in the event that any motion was tied.

The other 33 seats are split between Liberal Democrats (9), Conservatives (8), The Oldham Group (8) and independents (8). The latter including the Failsworth Independent Party (2), the Royton Independents (2) and the Shaw and Crompton Independent Party (2). Two other councillors, Mark Wilkinson and Sandra Ball, both representing the Failsworth West ward, have said they will not be forming a political party but, instead, sit as independents.

As reported exclusively here on the Neil Wilby Media website on 8th May, 2024 (read in full here) the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and The Oldham Group have formed a 25 seat alliance that, if supported by six of the eight independents, would guarantee them an absolute majority and pave the way for long-serving Liberal Democrat Leader, Cllr Howard Sykes OBE (pictured above), to become Leader of the Council. A post he held previously between 2008 and 2011.

There are other permutations that make the final vote count more complex, for example if any of the independents abstain rather than choose between Labour and the ‘rainbow coalition’. 

All those eight independents were voted into power on strong anti-Labour platforms, so it is unlikely they will support Cllr Shah and her beleaguered Party. The Failsworth Independent Party and The Shaw and Crompton Independents have, it is reported, committed to the rainbow coalition. Albeit, the Leader of the latter group, Cllr Marc Hince, holds very considerable, and publicly expressed, personal animus against Cllr Sykes. 

If those commitments hold true, and it has to be said that Cllr Hince is an elected representative whose word cannot be trusted (read more here) then, even if the Royton Independents and the two Failsworth West independents abstained, it would leave the coalition with a simple 27-26 majority. 

On that detailed analysis, it is difficult to see how The Oldham Times, and their anonymous source (believed to be Cllr Abdul Jabbar) can conclude that Labour will form a minority administration and Cllr Shah will still be Leader. 

The Liberal Democrats, when approached, declined to comment.

The author of The Oldham Times article, Joe Yates, whom in his nine years on Twitter (now ‘X’) has accumulated just 300 followers on his social media account, made this comment shortly after this Neil Wilby Media article was published: 

Neil Wilby joined his first newspaper, the Humberside Weekly News, in 1981; probably around 20 years before Joe was born. 

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Sunday 12th May, 2024 at 0855 hours

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Picture credit: Oldham Council

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