Wins for 'anti-LTN' party in Oxford after Labour losses

The Independent Oxford Alliance Party (IOA), which formed in November, gained four seats in Rose Hill & Iffley, Littlemore, Cowley and Lye Valley wards as votes were announced for the Oxford City Council elections at the Town Hall. 

Labour lost the Littlemore ward after IOA candidate Anna Stares beat the Labour incumbent Sandy Douglas as the party failed to regain its overall majority of the council.

READ MORE: Elections 2024: Live Oxfordshire results

There were also losses in other wards to IOA candidates following the resignation of councillors from the party over Sir Keir Starmer's rhetoric around Gaza as well as the unsuccessful candidacy of a new Labour candidate for Lye Valley.

IOA candidate David Henwood with some supporters. (Image: Noor Qurashi.)

Speaking out at the vote count, the now elected IOA councillor David Henwood, said: "I'm feeling incredibly excited.

"I think the political map of Oxford is going to change.

"We've been listening and we haven't been ignoring."

Party chairwoman Anne Gwinnett said after the results to "watch this space" as the IOA would also be putting forward county council candidates in the upcoming elections.

Anne Gwinnet. (Image: IOA.)

Labour ended the day with 11 seats which means they now have 20 overall but saw several seats lost for the party.

The Liberal Democrats won five seats meaning that they have nine seats overall in the city council.

Speaking after the final outcome, Labour leader Susan Brown said "a whole variety of different" issues in the city and across the country had fed into the election results.

She added: "A lot of the results were very tight."

The Green party also made a few wins across the city with Dianne Regisford taking the Holywell seat and Alex Powell claiming the St Clement's seat - both previous Labour seats.

Contenders were put forward by the IOA in St Clement's and Barton & Sandhills but the two candidates just missed out to Green and Labour party candidates respectively.

There was not a major shift in the political outcome for the Liberal Democrats with city councillor and the county's highways chief Andrew Gant retaining his seat in Cutteslowe and Sunnymead and other councillors such as Mohammed Altaf-Khan winning in the Headington ward.

Andrew Gant. (Image: Oxfordshire County Council.)

A number of wards had tight results with Blackbird Leys being a close run between the two Labour candidates and two Independents.

The Labour candidates - Lubna Arshad and Linda Smith - won the seats in the end.

Another notable gain took place in the Temple Cowley ward with Mohammed Azad becoming the second Independent city councillor to serve the ward, alongside Saj Malik - turning it fully Independent.

This comes as the previous Labour councillor, Lubna Arshad, had stood down from the seat to run in Blackbird Leys and onlookers watched closely to see if the new party candidate Charlie Hicks would be successful.

The political makeup of the council is now 20 Labour, nine Lib Dem, eight Green, four Independent Oxford Alliance and seven Independent (non-grouped) members.