HE once had leading roles on Tameside Council and now Oliver Ryan has been elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time.
Hailing from Ashton-under-Lyne, Ryan was first elected as a councillor at the age of just 19, having first joined the Labour Party aged 15.
The 29-year-old represented the Audenshaw ward and held two executive roles on the local authority’s Cabinet, responsible for statutory Children’s Social Care Services and later Regeneration and Finance.
As The Correspondent first revealed in 2022, he stepped back from his frontline role following the local elections as his ally Brenda Warrington faced a challenge as Council Leader from the current incumbent Gerald Cooney.
After securing a 342 majority to hold his Audenshaw seat in the May elections that year, Ryan – who is the son of Droylsden East councillor Laura Boyle – was selected to be Labour’s candidate in Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield.
According to his website, he states that his priorities are jobs and youth unemployment, housing, the NHS, transport, council services, and the environment and energy security.
On a night when Labour secured a crushing landslide victory across the country to end 14 years of Conservative rule, this was reflected in the outcome in the Lancashire constituency that Ryan stood in.
He gained the seat from the incumbent Conservative Antony Higginbotham, who was the first Tory MP for the town in more than 100 years, by topping a poll of eight candidates.
Ryan received 12,598 votes – a share of 31.7 per cent – to claim a majority of 3,420.
The Liberal Democrats, who enjoyed a record-breaking night nationally with 71 MPs elected, came second as veteran councillor and former MP Gordon Birtwistle took 9,178 votes.
Mr Higginbotham’s vote share was down 20.2 per cent as he polled third for the Tories with 8,058. In fourth was Reform UK’s Nathan McCollum with 7,755, followed by Jack Launer of the Green Party who claimed 1,518 votes.
Independent candidates Rayyan Fliss, Mitchell Cryer and David Roper received 292, 169 and 151 votes respectively.