Oldham Council Fails To Elect Leader As Political Deadlock Continues

Last night was the first full council outside the protracted Annual Meeting to be held in this political year.

At the meeting, the future of the Council’s legal standing depended upon whether an executive leadership could be formed.

Opening the meeting, Pam Byrne took the opportunity to comment on the recent fires and wanted to talk about the impact on the environment and wildlife as well as the people who live nearby and the quality of air. She made a point of thanking the various statutory and other organisations who have worked tirelessly to put the fires out and reducing the impact on the environment.

Moving on to Council business and having been warned by the Director of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer, Alex Bougatef, of their legal predicament under the Local Government Act 2000. Councillors have had a two-week grace period since the Annual Meeting failed to elect a leader.

With no leader or cabinet formed, standard items on the agenda such as reports from cabinet were bypassed and Council moved directly to the election of the Deputy Mayor. Although not a legal requirement, the absence of a deputy places a strain on the mayor’s civic duties and if, for whatever reason, the mayor cannot attend a full Council meeting, it would not be lawful to proceed.

There were two nominations. Mark Wilkinson of Failsworth West and Ken Rustage of Failsworth East who were nominated by Reform UK and Labour Party respectively. Neither was elected.

Councillor Ghafoor from the Oldham Group asked for rules to be suspended to enable nominations from the floor. His suggestion was voted down.

Next on the agenda was the election of Leader with the first ‘amendment’ being put forward by Reform UK that they form a minority administration with Councillor Lewis Quigg taking the role of Leader.

That proposal failed to attract the necessary support from the Council.

The second amendment made was that the Labour Group form a minority administration with Councillor Arooj Shah taking the Leader role. Again, the proposal failed to gain enough votes.

Amendments 3, 4, and 5 nominated Councillors Sam Al-Hamdani, Mark Kenyon and Kamran Ghafoor to the Leadership with those nominations coming from the Oldham Group and a Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance.

Each nomination was lost and then Cllr Ghafoor introduced two separate options for distribution of power with both being voted down. This led to the Council Chamber suddenly erupting in allegations of blame.

It was at this point that Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, (Liberal Democrat Leader) spoke of a meeting of all party leaders earlier in the week where he had understood that a balanced administration would be formed.

Councillor Quigg, (Reform UK Leader), strenuously denied the prospect of him or his group accepting such a proposal and so the election of a leader and the formation of a political executive on Oldham Council was adjourned to the next meeting which is in September.

The Council is therefore now in a precarious legal position and a Section 5 (Local Government and Housing Act 1989), notice is increasingly likely to be issued by Alex Bougatef with the potential that this could lead to the Secretary of State invoking powers to intervene.

Despite the difficulties of the evening, the meeting ended on a positive note with a motion from the Oldham Group, amended by the Labour Group on making school uniforms more affordable being supported by all Councillors.