Labour have held onto both of their seats in Oldham, fending off threats from both left and right to secure comfortable majorities.
In Oldham East and Saddleworth, Debbie Abrahams, who has represented the seat since 2011, won with 14,091 votes, while in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton, Jim McMahon, who was first elected in 2015, won with 13,332 votes.
Speaking after his victory, McMahon said he was “determined” for Oldham to have a seat round the table under the Labour government.
“After 14 years of, frankly, managed decline, it’s time to build from the foundations up.”
Abrahams promised a “fairer, better Oldham”.
Both Oldham constituencies are considered safe Labour seats, but nobody was taking anything for granted after Labour lost control of the local council due to its stance on Gaza.
However, in Oldham East and Saddleworth, Workers Party candidate Shanaz Saddique only managed to come in fourth place behind Labour, Reform and the Conservatives.
Independent Oldham West candidate Zaffar Iqbal (who was endorsed by the Workers Party) fared slightly better, coming second behind McMahon.
Speaking before the results were declared, Saddique said that the Workers Party “is here to stay”.
“Labour will struggle. The two-party system should not carry on as it is – the current system isn’t fair, and that’s what people are saying.”
Saddique declined to comment after the result.
Overall, it was a subdued night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as it became clear quite early on that the results would align with what had been predicted – so much so that neither the Reform candidate, for Oldham East Jacob Bardon, nor independents Nick Buckley and Paul Errock, showed up at all.
The results mark a noticeable improvement compared to the 2019 election, which saw Abraham’s majority shrink to just under 2,000 votes as nearby ‘red wall’ seats fall to the Conservatives.
It is worth noting, however, that in Oldham East and Saddleworth the combined Reform and Conservative share comes to 14,572 – higher than the number of votes cast for Labour.
Conservative candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth Tom Fish said that today’s national results “didn’t come as a surprise”, and commended the effort of his party’s activists.
Fish was also critical of Reform for splitting the right-wing vote. He said: “Unfortunately, we’ve come up against a Reform candidate who didn’t even show up to the count.
“It makes you question how much he cares about the area.”
Here are the results for Oldham’s constituencies in full.
Oldham East and Saddleworth
- Debbie Abrahams, Labour Party: 14,091
- Sam Al-Hamdani, Liberal Democrats: 3,386
- Jacob Barden, Reform UK: 7,734
- Nick Buckley, Independent: 517
- Paul Errock, Independent: 1,362
- Tom Fish, Conservative: 6,838
- Fesl Reza-Khan, Green Party: 1,490
- Shanaz Saddique, Workers Party: 4,647
Turnout: 55%
Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton
- Jim McMahon, Labour Co-Operative: 13,332
- Hannah Kitching, Liberal Democrats: 1,271
- Horatio Lovering, Conservatives: 4,066
- David Silbiger, Reform UK: 6,848
- Samsuzzaman Syed, Green Party: 1,857
- Tony Wilson, Independent: 573
- Zaffar Iqbal, Independent: 8,256
- Raja Miah, Independent: 2,470
Turnout: 51%
