Council remains 'rudderless' month after elections

A council remains "effectively rudderless" one month on from the local elections after political parties failed to form an administration.

The deadlock at Oldham Council continues after a Reform UK bid to take over failed to gain sufficient support at a meeting on Monday.

The council has been in stalemate after Labour lost eight seats and Reform UK took seven in May's elections, leaving no party with an overall majority.

Reform group leader Lewis Quigg told the meeting his party had a "clear mandate" to take control but other parties disagreed.

Labour is still the largest party with 18 councillors, while Reform has 16, and there are 16 independents, with smaller numbers of Lib Dems and Conservatives.

Initial talks on 20 May failed to reach a breakthrough about a way forward.

Conservative councillor Pam Byrne was elected to the apolitical role of mayor at the meeting on Tuesday, but Reform's bid to form a minority administration failed.

Quigg said the election results showed his party had been given the authority to lead the whole borough.

He said members of his party were "second to none" and had experience even if they had faults or "may say things that are stupid".

Quigg said: "Things do need to change. We cannot continue the way that we have been going."

He added: "The basics of this council are not being delivered. Services are failing and things need to be fixed. That is our simple proposal. Nothing fancy. Straightforward. Common sense. Getting on with the job and doing things the residents put us here to do."

But Liberal Democrat group leader Sam Al-Hamdani said: "I haven't heard anything from you other than to say we won the most seats at that election.

"That doesn't give you a majority in this chamber and it didn't give you a majority of the vote.

"It would be appreciated if you actually came forward with something constructive."

In response, Quigg said they had been clear about "fixing the basics" which he argued the Liberal Democrats supported, adding: "Our proposal is to work with people cross-party lines to get it across.

He said: "This council has effectively been rudderless since May whether we like it or not. Right or wrong, we have got an opportunity now to change things and put an administration in place."

Without the numbers, Reform easily lost the vote.

The council remains in a similar position as it was before but positions to some key committees were made.

Following the meeting, Quigg told the Local Democracy Reporting Service other parties had "created a roadblock to moving the borough forward".

Labour group leader Arooj Shah said her group would support "any viable legitimate form of administration" as long as it was not rooted in "divisive politics".

"We will have to consider what we do going forward because this situation cannot continue the way it is," she said.

"It's just not the right thing. People rely on us. I am feeling comforted that we have really competent officers keeping the ship going but, all said and done, we have residents to serve."

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