Labour steal Deputy Mayor appointment as part of a “grubby deal” for control of Oldham Council

Oldham Liberal Democrats have blasted the ruling Labour Group of Oldham Council and their so-called Independent councillor supporters ahead of the forthcoming appointment of a new Deputy Mayor of Oldham.

Liberal Democrat Leader councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “In Oldham Borough the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are politically neutral figures.  Their job is to be an ambassador for the Borough and champion our communities.

“We have a long-established tradition going back to 1974 of appointing the Deputy Mayor using a points-based system that gives a proportional result so all parties and none get a fair share to nominate a candidate to serve.  After a year as Deputy, that person then becomes the Mayor of the Borough the following year.

“The nomination always goes to the party with the most points in a given year.”

Last year the Liberal Democrats agreed to wave their nomination for 12 months so the current Mayor could do another 12 months following the tragic death of his wife while he was in office.

Points are based on the number of elected councillors a group has.  But this year Sykes and the Liberal Democrats are hitting out because the Labour ruling group are using the Deputy Mayor nomination to “keep their grubby power-sharing deal on the road.”

Labour lost their majority on Oldham Council in May 2024 and since then, they have been supported to continue in office by a mixture of Independents from Shaw & Crompton Independents and the Failsworth Independents.

This year, it is expected that one of these Independents will get the nod as the next Deputy Mayor, breaking with a nearly 50-year tradition of non-political appointments. 

Councillor Sykes said, “It is absolutely disgraceful that the Labour Party and the so-called Independents are dragging the Office of the Mayor into their grubby power-sharing deal.  This just goes to show that Labour will do absolutely anything to keep in power despite not having a majority.” 

Based on Oldham’s points-based system for Deputy Mayoral nominations, the next nomination should go to a member of the Liberal Democrat Group.

Councillor Sykes said, “If the nomination ends up going to one of these so-called Independents, it will have been because of a political stitch-up which will damage the reputation of our Mayoralty and is bad news for Oldham Borough. 

The Independents from these two groups have done more to bring party politics into things than the other groups on the Council put together.  To be fair some of Oldham’s Independent councillors are sincere and well intentioned they must be embarrassed to be tarred with the same brush.”