Oldham remains in leaderless limbo
Having now failed to elect a leader on three occasions since May’s local elections, the council is also still to appoint cabinet members. Members will try again on 15 July.
Last night’s mayor-making and annual council meeting was reconvened from 15 June, which had been the second attempt to put into place a functioning administration by electing a mayor, deputy mayor and leader for the council, ultimately only succeeding in choosing Conservative Cllr Pam Byrne as mayor.
Oldham had already been in no overall control prior to the May local elections, but with Labour holding 27 of the 60 seats, had been led by Cllr Arooj Shah since May 2023.
May’s election saw Reform gain 13 seats, giving the chamber a makeup of 18 Labour, 16 Reform, 16 independents/other, six Liberal Democrat, and four Conservative.
The first item on the agenda was the election of a deputy mayor. Three nominations were submitted prior to the session, but none – representing Labour, Reform, and a joint submission from the Lib Den and Tory groups – gained enough votes. Two further nominations from the floor also failed.
Mayor Cllr Pam Byrne told the meeting “I do need a deputy mayor, so would like someone to come up with something”.
Attempts to elect a leader followed a similar pattern, with Cllr Shah among the names put forward but ultimately stymied as most members voted along party lines. Fifty three members were in the chamber.
With no leader elected, the rest of the agenda – items such as deputy leader, cabinet positions and executive functions, along with shadow positions – was effectively rendered pointless, and a series of votes pushed everything to 15 July.
