A picture of the face of a sitting councillor has been taped to a pint-size water fountain shaped like a little boy peeing.
It’s a video featuring the Werneth council election candidate Mohammed Imran Ali. To some, he’s known better as Irish Imy, and to others, for his former convictions as cop-killer Dale Creghan’s getaway driver.
In the footage shared on social media, he’s ripping into councillor Kamran Ghafoor, leader of the Oldham Group and a local property tycoon, who recently came under scrutiny after one of the buildings he part-owns collapsed while its tenants were still inside.
It’s coun Ghafoor whose disembodied face is taped to the peeing fountain.
Oldham has long garnered a reputation for its ‘toxic politics’. But this year, campaigns across the borough seem to have reached a bizarre fever pitch that some have described as both a ‘circus’ and a ‘car crash’.
Political leaders have exchanged arguments over TikTok and Facebook videos. Candidates have shared personalised digs on social media. And a growing number of ‘local propaganda pages’ are providing a running, often racist, sometimes satirical commentary of every step of the way.
And that’s not counting the usual online abuse that always seems to ramp up in community groups during the pre-election period.
“It’s not that we haven’t been to bad places before,” deputy leader of the Lib Dems, coun Sam Al-Hamdani said, referencing the anger he’s encountered on people’s doorsteps in previous elections. “But I think now politics and politicians are giving themselves a bad name. And that’s feeding into a frenzy on social media, where the angriest voices are always the loudest. I think it’s bad for politics and bad for communities, and it’s turning people away.”
Coun Al-Hamdani noted that all local politicians, himself included, have a responsibility for when the political culture in their patch turns sour.
“We as politicians have to do better,” he said. “There are people who aren’t trying to do the right thing, and are just trying to stir up antagonism, making people hate the other person. They take no responsibility. Making politics about hating other people, that’s just a downward spiral. If people start to win by directing hate on another person, then our politics is only going to get worse.”
Political groups and candidates aren’t explicitly shoring up hatred for one another. But online campaign material has taken on an increasingly personalised tone. In a volley of videos over Muslim burial places in the borough, Labour town hall boss Arooj Shah and opposition leader coun Ghafoor take aim not just at their policies, but at each other.
“I ask you coun Ghafoor, what’s changed? Residents aren’t stupid. They see through your toxic manipulation,” coun Shah said in a video in which she accuses the Oldham Group boss of scaremongering and spreading misinformation about Muslim cemeteries. She slams the political group for the ‘deeply inappropriate and offensive’ decision to film their campaign material in a cemetery. Later in the video, she brings up the building on King Street, part-owned by coun Ghafoor, which collapsed last month, hinting he should ‘take responsibility’.
Coun Ghafoor’s riposte, posted on Facebook shortly later, begins with the words ‘What is your actual problem coun Shah?’ and asks the council leader to ‘think of what you say before you say it’. The video is interspersed with AI-generated images and a repeated clip of coun Shah blinking at the camera.
What’s striking about both videos, is they seem to address each other more than their intended audience: prospective voters.
“It’s just a car crash. All I’m seeing is the leader of Oldham Council and leader of the Oldham Group slagging each other off on Facebook,” said independent councillor Marc Hince, who previously collaborated with the Labour group. “It’s a bit embarrassing. If I was a voter, I would just be utterly perplexed.
“It’s so fragmented. There’s no working on a common thread for Oldham because everyone is too busy shouting ‘I hate you’.”
And according to some councillors, this may be ‘just the beginning’ of a rising storm of online arguments and abuse. Unless Labour gains seats in the election on May 7, there’s likely to be a ‘nasty negotiation period’ immediately after the election, in which political groups attempt to form alliances to secure leadership of the council. A number of sources are expecting the ‘underhanded’ online tactics to continue – and an avalanche of abusive online comments to be directed at them depending on the outcomes.
Some like the Oldham Group have already attempted to draw a line in the sand, stating they wouldn’t go into bed with Reform UK. This is where Irish Imy’s mocking video of coun Ghafoor comes in – a visual representation of all the political parties ‘pissing in the same pot’, according to the Werneth candidate.
While this is a satirical and surreal video from a candidate one councillor described as ‘deserving of a comedy slot on Channel 4′, others have serious fears about what the rhetoric around these negotiations will lead to.
There’s a reason for the concern. Independent councillor Lisa Navesey last year burst into tears in the council chambers as she shared how online harassment had affected her, after she’d agreed to join a ‘working agreement’ with the Labour group in 2024.
“My children read every threat, every form of abuse,” she said. “My 15 year old grandson has seen pictures of me with a noose around my neck.”
Most councillors in Oldham have opened up to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about experiencing online abuse or harassment at some stage.
It’s increasingly common for politicians and public servants across the UK to face personal attacks and abuse online. But Oldham is at the sharp end of this cultural trend, not helped along by politicians themselves contributing to the name-calling.
The Oldham Group did not wish to comment on the exchange or shift in internet culture to the LDRS.
Coun Arooj Shah said: “I’ll make no apologies for calling out misinformation and setting the record straight when politicians in Oldham are using it to stoke fear in our communities about something so sensitive as laying their loved ones to rest.
“We are an award‑winning council with a balanced budget, and with children’s and adults’ services rated good. We are focused on delivery, securing record levels of investment in regeneration, including £450 million in the town centre alone.
“There is confidence in this place, and it comes from its people because beyond the noise in the Council chamber, we are delivering for our communities, and our borough is moving forward.”
Irish Imy defended his content, which some councillors have described as ‘deserving of a comedy slot on Channel 4’. He said: “I won’t apologise for speaking out, for the video, or for asking questions that residents deserve answers to. If that earns me a comparison to a Channel 4 comedy skit, I’ll take it. At least people are watching, talking, and I’m getting my facts right. The truth only hurts people that are trying to sell a lie, again that’s a them problem not a me problem.
“Regarding the heated online culture, it’s a response to politicians’ actions and the silence of traditional channels. People are holding them accountable where I feel established systems have failed.
“Communities in Werneth and across Oldham have been repeatedly let down by poor representation, a lack of transparency, and a political culture that has for too long rewarded loyalty over ethics.”
Other groups were contacted for comment.
