First Muslim female council leader loses her seat after a year in power

The first Muslim female council leader, Arooj Shah, has slammed the Conservatives in Oldham for dehumanising her with the use of a deliberate ‘smear campaign’ which led her to lose her seat.

This makes Shah the second Labour leader to lose her seat to Conservative candidate Robert Barnes by a mere 96 votes in the Oldham Council. She had won the seat in May 2021 and replaced Sean Fielding, who had lost his seat.

After two months of winning the seat at the council last year which gave her control over the north of England, Shah became the victim of an arson attack where her car was set on fire which even caused damage to a property nearby.

A distraught Shah said in an interview, “I fought a really positive campaign, I believe in positivity, that’s what I wanted to bring to politics in Oldham. The campaign against me was a really personal campaign. I saw a new low in the Conservatives in Oldham, they really jumped into the gutter. At every opportunity, I told myself ‘they go low, you go higher’. I think the one thing I can do is that I wanted to do my best for the people of Oldham. Even the opposition, I never retaliated.”

The first Muslim female council leader, Arooj Shah, has slammed the Conservatives in Oldham for dehumanising her with the use of a deliberate ‘smear campaign’ which led her to lose her seat.

This makes Shah the second Labour leader to lose her seat to Conservative candidate Robert Barnes by a mere 96 votes in the Oldham Council. She had won the seat in May 2021 and replaced Sean Fielding, who had lost his seat.

After two months of winning the seat at the council last year which gave her control over the north of England, Shah became the victim of an arson attack where her car was set on fire which even caused damage to a property nearby.

A distraught Shah said in an interview, “I fought a really positive campaign, I believe in positivity, that’s what I wanted to bring to politics in Oldham. The campaign against me was a really personal campaign. I saw a new low in the Conservatives in Oldham, they really jumped into the gutter. At every opportunity, I told myself ‘they go low, you go higher’. I think the one thing I can do is that I wanted to do my best for the people of Oldham. Even the opposition, I never retaliated.”