Oldham is where Reform's promise was tested first, and Oldham is where it broke. In May this town handed Reform sixteen seats on a single pledge. No deals. No backroom arrangements. "Vote Reform, get Reform." On 16 September ten of those councillors voted with Arooj Shah's Labour Party for... a four-way carve-up of the council, agreed in private meetings over several weeks. Reform were rewarded with two scrutiny chairs, Children's Services (without a single executive power), and the extra allowances. Their leader had told the town the morning before the meeting there were no deals. Their group statement the day following the meeting said the political groups had spent weeks developing the proposal. Nobody signed Reform's statement. This is not an Oldham story. Every town that votes Reform will face the same moment. When officers will walk in with a paper, the old parties offer a share, and someone says they need to act in the public interest. In Oldham, where the case against the old order was stronger than anywhere in England, Reform went into a council meeting and came out voting with Labour. They lied to their voters beforehand. And then they hid behind anonymous Facebook posts afterwards If they folded in Oldham, after repeatedly telling the townsfolk they would not do a deal with Labour, and are now hiding too scared to face the public, how are they any different from what they promised to fight against. I have friends in Reform. I am not attacking Reform. I am simply sharing how many of my townspeople feel right now. Lied to and betrayed. A small ray of sunshine, well done to six of the sixteen Reform councillors in Oldham that refused to take part in any of this. Raja Miah MBEshow more

@anti_two_teir Sorry Raja I think you’re being too lenient here. This was a BAD decision and not one that should have ever happened - surely ??? It will certainly not win any reform trust with these antics. Sadly I am not surprised.

@Nigel_Farage is your party fake !!

@RupertLowe10 what is going on here?

TLDR- council meeting held a vote- #Reform said we are abstaining, there’s no backroom deals goin on #Labour said- yea there was ya cheeky bunch of turncoats! So #Reform did a U-turn and voted FOR. Snakes- slimey lickle snakes lower than shark shit

Do not reform…. Oppose at all costs. Take the councils away from criminal links and Restore Oldham, Restore Britain

Reform only has one aim - destroy the Tories.

Depressing

If central government intervention had gone ahead, it would fall directly under the remit of:Angela Rayner, who serves as the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Jim McMahon, who is the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution.

If that was true, the Labour councillors would not have fought tooth and nail to prevent the commissioners coming in. Likewise, if Reform’s position was to prevent the commissioners from coming in, why was it their policy to see have them come in? Either way, why lie to their voters?

Looking at examples of previous councils in a similar situation the commissioners would have been in place for years rather than months.

You’ve made that up. Nonetheless, my question still stands, why lie to your voters?

Hero Raj✊🏻

So will u vote restore?

The Mayor is an utter waste of space!

The lesser of two evils.

@Nigel_Farage ?

A lot of overpromoted dinner ladies in there…what a retarded town of failures hoodwinked by their own laziness, ego and ignorance, albeit gaslit and brainwashed since birth…fake King Charles & William were right - such crap White people that they replaced them with Cult muslims

Reform are the tories, never fall for the collective bullshit they spout ,these lot will be unmasked .

@OPGO1 Pure betrayal by self serving councillors. Power corrupts.. I hope they’re proud of themselves.