Protester forcibly removed from council chambers after threatening ‘a genocide at the ballot box’
Reporter: Charlotte Hall, Local Democracy Reporter
Date published: 29 February 2024
A protestor interrupts the Oldham council budget meeting
An angry protester was forcibly removed from the Oldham council chambers by security after interrupting a full council meeting.
The protester threatened councillors would see a “genocide at the ballot box” in reference to the conflict in Gaza.
Councillors were gathered to discuss the budget for 2024/25, which sets the local authority’s spending priorities and cuts for the coming financial year, including setting the council tax and social housing rent.
The protester, who was in the public gallery, shouted: “We’ve listened to a lot of talk about housing and social care and taxes but what we haven’t heard is a stand against the genocide happening in Palestine.
“If you don’t want to recognise the genocide - we’ll show you a genocide in the ballot box.”
The meeting was paused as the gentleman was approached by two security guards who attempted to persuade the man to leave.
He refused and continued to shout, though he was drowned out by an uproar in the chambers.
The deputy mayor, Eddie Moores, who was chairing the meeting, threatened to call the police and after a number of minutes in which the protestor refused to stand down, told security to remove him.
The protester was subsequently pushed and dragged from the room by three guards.
A number of councillors opposed the forcible removal and called out “leave him alone”.
They were subsequently reprimanded by the deputy mayor for getting involved.
Others commented that they felt “threatened” by the protester’s wording.
The protest interrupted the counting of a vote for the Liberal Democrats’ amendments to the Labour cabinet’s budget.
The vote was resumed after a thirty second calm-down period and was ultimately rejected.
Later in the meeting, the deputy mayor was called on to apologise for having the protester “manhandled” out of the chambers.
Councillor Howard Sykes raised the issue after the budget discussions were completed.
He said: “We have witnessed something in tonight’s meeting that I have never seen before in our council.
"We have watched someone be manhandled out of the council - and he really was manhandled.
“Is this something that is going to happen to people from now on?”
Council leader Arooj Shah agreed, saying: “I have seen people do a lot worse and not been thrown out of the council in that way.
"We cannot be disproportionate in our decisions.”
The deputy mayor asked for the matter to be discussed among council leaders.
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