Labour finds no seat at Sykes’ table

LABOUR councillors hit out during yesterday’s annual council meeting claiming they had been deliberately blocked from the council’s Cabinet.

The Cabinet has a total of 10 seats this year with nine Liberal Democrat councillors and one Tory councillor, conservative group leader Jack Hulme.

For the past two years, Labour councillor Dave Hibbert has taken up the opposition place.

However, when council leader Howard Sykes invited all parties take part in a “Cabinet of Talents’, Labour turned him down.

Speaking yesterday, returning Labour councillor John Battye said the Labour party had won 13 seats out of 20 in this year’s local elections but had no representation on the Cabinet.

He said the Liberal and Conservative Group were blocking out Labour, but they should be able to challenge the coalition and not be excluded.

He said: “It’s quite an extraordinary situation that the leader of the party that lost seats in the election has a coalition with the party that won no seats in the election.

He added: “Now a cabinet of 10 people are supposed to be swimming in the same direction.”

Councillor Dave Hibbert said there had been an intentional and premeditated freezing out, and that would have a negative impact on politics in Oldham.

Labour group leader Jim McMahon said not wanting to form part of the administration was different to being prevented from taking up an opposition place on Cabinet.


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