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Liberal Chairman and Leader elected at County Council
18/05/2021
Conservatives in opposition warn against ignoring tory vote
The first meeting of the newly elected Oxfordshire Council Council has taken place this morning. COVID precautionary measures meant Councillors met in a socially distanced environment at Spiceball Leisure Centre rather than at County Hall in Oxford.
Control of the Council has been taken by an alliance between the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens. The Conservatives had previously run the council, but May’s poll left no one party with enough seats to take the lead.
Suggestions of alliances included a proposal that the Conservatives and Labour could work together, but with no agreement reached the Conservatives find themselves in opposition for the next four years.
After an opening address by the exiting Chair – Bicester West’s Councillor Les Sibley – Councillor John Howson was elected to serve as the new County Council Chair. Councillor Howson is a Liberal Democrat representative for the St Margaret’s ward in Oxford.
Councillor Liz Leffman – a Liberal Democrat from Charlbury & Wychwood – was elected as the new Leader of the Council, replacing Conservative Ian Hudspeth, who lost his seat at the election.
Ahead of Councillor Leffman’s appointment Councillor Arash Fatemian (Conservative) from Deddington addressed the meeting wanting to remind Councillors not to ignore the large Conservative vote. He said: “This is a party that … returned the largest number of votes and the largest number of seats. This is a party that had 37.1% of the vote. Had we secured 2,000 more votes across the county, or 36.7% of the vote share, we would have had a path to power. I say that as a reality check against some of the rhetoric about time for change.”
However, Councillor Bob Johnson (Liberal Democrat) felt that the new appointments should be marked as a turning point for the county council. He said: “This is an historic moment. I’ve been on this Council since 1993 and this is the first time that anyone other than a Conservative has been nominated as leader of this great county.”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam