In a significant political shake-up, Cumberland councillor Steve Christou has severed ties with the Our Local Community (OLC) party and intends to establish a breakaway group alongside a controversial Liverpool councillor who has previously faced fines for distributing Islamophobic flyers.
Last week, Christou announced his immediate resignation to OLC leader Paul Garrard, just over a month after being re-elected to the Granville ward. His departure comes two weeks following the election of his Labor rival, Ola Hamed, as mayor, a position secured with the support of the Liberals during a heated council meeting.
In a statement, Christou, who served as mayor from 2019 to 2021, expressed his disappointment regarding the OLC’s negotiations with Labor in an attempt to broker a deal related to the mayoralty ahead of the vote on October 16.
“I was never in favour of this arrangement and had made my feelings expressly clear that I would not vote for such an arrangement when voting for the mayor in council’s chamber,” he remarked.
In the wake of the election, Cr Hamed called for the council to move beyond the “toxicity” that characterised the previous term, while Liberal Cr Joseph Rahme justified his decision to support Labor, citing a significant decline in trust towards the OLC in the lead-up to the vote.
Christou’s discontent with the OLC’s alliance with Labor was evident as he stated, “For over five years and two council terms, I have worked very hard to turn the council seat of Granville from a safe Labor seat where two councillors should be getting elected into a marginal seat, ensuring the Labor Party is only able to have one councillor elected to the Granville ward.”
Source: The Daily Telegraph.
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