“Identity politics is tearing communities apart”, the former leader of Oldham council has warned, in the week marking the 25th anniversary of race riots across the north of England.
Arooj Shah quit as leader of the Greater Manchester borough earlier in May, after the local elections left the council with no group in overall control.
Shah now fears the fragmentation of the vote in Oldham – with Labour losing to Reform UK and pro-Gaza independents – may lead to political deadlock in other parts of the country.
More than three weeks since the elections, the borough – which has 250,000 residents – is in political stalemate, with parties yet to agree leadership and terms on working together.
Shah said: “Division is not what places like Oldham need. The far right and the far left are not healthy for any place. They instil raw rage in people – it’s absolutely dangerous.”
In 2001, tensions erupted after a series of riots, which began in Oldham and quickly spread to Burnley and Bradford. Since then, community cohesion projects within the borough had meant there had been “no trouble on the street”, Shah said
However, she said unsubstantiated “social media lies” that Labour had covered up the town’s grooming gang scandal had poisoned town hall politics and intensified the “horrific, dehumanising” racist and misogynistic abuse she received while in office. A safeguarding review found no evidence of a Labour cover-up.
“Absolutely the politics in Oldham are toxic – because there’s a Muslim leader of the council and some people don’t accept that,” she added.
“They think because I’m brown I’m related to [grooming gangs] but I’m one of the strongest voices in saying we need to deal with perpetrators. The most important people in that were the girls that were affected.
“Being a woman in elected office, from a marginalised community and working-class background, have contributed to the level of abuse. I’ve got voice messages saying: ‘You deserve to be raped and you deserve to die you bitch.’”
In 2021, Shah’s car was torched. Last year a man was reported to police for threatening to kill her. She has to attend events with Home Office security, and the council leader and chief executive’s offices have attack-resistant doors.
“I can’t go shopping. I can’t go to [the new Oldham] market that I’m so proud of unless I’ve got security,” Shah said.
Oldham is bucking the trend of declining town centres with a £450m regeneration scheme, and Eton college is planning to open a spin-off sixth-form academy in the town.
“Economic justice and community cohesion are inseparable,” Shah said. “The issue we have in this country is class.”
Last year Oldham was named “most improved council” at the Local Government Chronicle Awards, and Shah was named “leader of the year”.
But plans hang in the balance after Labour fell to 18 councillors in the May elections, with Reform now the second-largest with 16, while the Oldham Group of pro-Gaza independents have 10. A crunch meeting has been scheduled for 15 June.
Shah has accused Reform and the Oldham Group of “weaponising” migration and Gaza respectively.
She said: “You’ve got the far right telling white working class communities: ‘You’ve been left behind because of immigrants’, and you’ve got the Oldham Group saying: ‘Nobody cares about you, nobody’s done anything about Gaza.’ I’m pro-Palestine, pro-Israel and pro-humanity – (but) Netanyahu is not waiting for Arooj from Oldham to give him a call.”
Reform has said Labour “has learnt nothing” from the local election results. Lewis Quigg, Oldham’s Reform group leader, added: “Instead of talking nonsense, we are getting on with picking up large amounts of casework from Labour councillors who have done nowt and said nowt for years. Labour failed to deliver for Oldham.”
Kamran Ghafoor, the Oldham Group leader, denied “weaponising Gaza”, saying it mattered deeply to people in the borough. He added: “This is not ‘identity politics’; it is politics driven by conviction and representation.
“The opposition alliance has repeatedly tried to engage constructively about the future governance of Oldham council. No one should face racism, misogyny or hatred in public life … We wanted her leadership to succeed for the sake of Oldham.
“Unfortunately, many residents now feel the borough has become increasingly divided.”
Shah said: “The thing that makes me so sad about the identity and grievance politics is that when my parents came over in the late 1950s, they did everything they could to integrate – everybody was one.
“I look at this playing out in my home town and think: this isn’t the Oldham I know, which cares about each other and is resilient. Your divisiveness is tearing communities apart.”
