How voters rejecting mainstream politics are changing Greater Manchester

As local election results came in last week, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party was “ready to govern”.

It was a victory on the back of a huge lead in the national polls, with some suggesting a Labor landslide is all but inevitable when the general election is called.

And after winning more than 180 council seats across the country on May 2, who could argue with that?

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But in Greater Manchester, it was a different story.

A shift to independent candidates in Greater Manchester has left three councils – Bolton, Oldham and Stockport – in overall control after Labor lost seats in all three boroughs.

The reasons behind the losses were varied, but independents say voters are fed up with the main parties and want something different.

Labor loses Oldham council

In Oldham, Labor lost five councilors and lost overall control of the council, with independents winning a total of eight seats.

The ongoing conflict in Palestine was a key issue locally, with independents in the neighborhood running “boycott labor” campaigns in an attempt to hurt the party over its stance on the war.

Arooj Shah, the leader of Oldham Labour, explained the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) result, claiming that people feel that mainstream political parties are “no longer for them”.

Kamran Ghafoor, 35, an Oldham councilor and leader of the Oldham group, explained the result by claiming that the local Labor Party did not know what voters wanted.

He told the LDRS that the main parties are struggling to get things done in the towns they represent and bread and butter council issues such as potholes are piling up without being dealt with quickly enough.

The situation has left the Oldham Labor Party facing a plot by independents and opposition parties to take over the leadership of the council.

If he succeeds, it would signal a dramatic reversal of Labour’s fortunes in the area, despite the party’s progress nationally.

Mr Ghafoor said: “The Labor Party in Oldham is out of touch with the people here. They don’t know what the people of Oldham want.

“People here have rejected the Labor Party, they have no new ideas. The Labor leader has been so out of touch with Gaza and Palestine that they haven’t even stood up and spoken about what’s going on.

“The public is tired of the same old routine, but we are different because we are not based on a big political party, so we can say what we want.

“We won’t work with Labor but we could take control of the council with the other groups.”

Coun Shah has been unanimously re-elected as Oldham Labor leader despite the local election result.

In a statement, she said her party was working to “establish a stable and sustainable council administration that the city needs”, in a sign that a complicated battle for control of Oldham council could be about to begin – with independents in its center.

Coun Shah added: “We cannot give in to those who want to divide or divide our city.”

Independents are winning seats in former Labor heartlands in Stockport

Stockport is another area of ​​Greater Manchester where Labor suffered setbacks in local elections.

The group lost two council seats on May 2, leaving the Lib Dems just one councilor away from taking control of the town hall, a feat not achieved by any party since 2011.

The past few years have seen a surge in independents in wards such as Edgeley, which were previously Labor strongholds.

A row between councilor Matt Wynne and Stockport Labor led to the creation of the Edgeley Community Association (ECA) and the group now holds all three seats in the Edgeley ward.

Mr Wynne – who left Labor after the citizenship – said Edgeley residents were “fed up” with established parties, which he claims are using the area to benefit from national elections rather than focus on local issues.

He claims the Lib Dems are too focused on winning the parliamentary seats of Cheadle and Hazel Grove and that Labor is distracted by internal squabbling.

In this year’s local elections, ECA candidate Asa Caton faced re-election against Labor and other incumbent parties.

Labour’s chances in the area were not helped by a late switch of candidates, a move which Mr Caton said was not explained and “didn’t sit well” with Edgeley voters.

Stockport Labor said the change was needed, adding that the party had “fundamentally changed” under Keir Starmer, without going into detail about what had happened.

On May 2, voters comfortably re-elected Mr. Caton, in a sign that the move away from Labor in the area is not just a short-term trend.

The result left Labor with 22 council seats in Stockport, down two, and the Lib Dems down to 31, just short of the 32 needed for full control.

And since being on Stockport council, ECA has campaigned on issues such as calling for a review of Stockport Homes – the company that manages the council’s housing stock – and winning support for a motion calling for a new express bus service from to Stockport to Manchester Airport, among other things.

Working this way is why voters keep coming back to ECA, believes leader Matt Wynne.

He said: “I am meeting more and more people who are not willing to tolerate their community being just a tramp on a boardroom seat.

“They want their voices to be heard loud and clear on the core issues and a plan of action and more for their community.

“ECA is this bread and butter. We’re back on this again with a voter support coalition.

“Having community parties allows you to focus on the long-term issues facing your district and district, rather than tiptoeing around and being forced to keep your head down like you do in political parties big.

“Having more modern, positive and progressive independent parties like us is only a good thing for local democracy. Our constitution says that we are social democratic in nature.

“We will see more in the future and more of a continental model of different parties representing councils across the country, even more so in urban areas.”

Rochdale Independent who ran to become the city’s MP

In February there was national coverage of the Rochdale by-election following the death of Labor MP Tony Lloyd.

The election was called a landslide victory for George Galloway, who won the race for the UK Labor Party, telling Labor leader Keir Starmer that the result was “for Gaza”.

The party has made progress since then and recently unseated the deputy leader of Manchester City Council – a Labor councilor – when Labor candidate Shahbaz Sarwar won in the Longsight ward.

But in the Rochdale by-election, it was independent candidate David Tully who finished second behind Mr Galloway, beating both Labor and the Tories.

Speaking to LDRS after the election, he said he had “no intention of joining another party”.

He added: “I think I would lose my identity for what I stood for, which is basically the mainstream parties doing what they do and losing touch with the community.

“I can only be independent and David Tully again.”

All independent councilors who spoke to the LDRS said they believed independent politics would grow in Greater Manchester as residents move away from the main parties.

If this turns out to be correct, it could see more dramatic changes to the way councils are run in the region – and it would have big consequences for the whole of Greater Manchester.