A councillor whose Ferrari was smashed up while he attended the election count in Oldham said the ‘targeted attack’ was a ‘political vendetta’, leaving him at least £10,000 in debt.
Kamran Ghafoor, who leads the all-Asian Oldham Group of independent councillors, discovered his black sports car had been attacked at around 2am on May 8 while parked on Union Street a few minutes walk away from the count.
‘I thought some idiots had just smashed up my vehicle because we gave them opposition. I automatically assumed it was a political vendetta,’ Mr Ghafoor, 49, told the Daily Mail.
‘I do believe I am a target. There are a lot of nutters out there, and because I am quite vocal in what I believe, and how I think Oldham should be run, I have become a target over the past two years.’
The incident in The Loom comes amid the town’s history of racial tension, alleged intimidatory threats, links to grooming gangs and social media disinformation campaigns.
Oldham itself has been divided as the town’s Asian vote has abandoned Labour while growing in power: the Greater Manchester town’s white population has fallen from 91 per cent to 68 per cent in just over 30 years.
The town is also at the centre of a grooming gang scandal, which is the subject of an inquiry that launched last month.
The power of the Asian vote was borne out in last week’s local elections when, despite a total whitewash by Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, Mr Ghafoor’s breakaway Oldham Group – which campaigns for a dedicated Muslim cemetery – was met with strong support while Labour support waned.
Harnessing backing from the town’s once Labour-loyal Muslim voters, the group gained two councillors as the left-wing party lost nine – prompting Oldham Council’s Labour leader Arooj Shah to step down.
Some 31 seats are needed for decisive control out of the 60, as Labour sits on 18 (down from 26), Reform in 16 (up from three), 10 for the Oldham Group, six for the Liberal Democrats and four for the Conservatives.
Kamran Ghafoor discovered his black sports car had been attacked at around 2am on May 8 while parked on Union Street a few minutes walk away from the count
Mr Ghafoor is the leader of the Oldham Group and independent councillor for Hollinwood ward
Reform claimed the seats in many of Oldham’s white working-class areas, including Failsworth East – a seat previously held by Brian Hobin’s Failsworth Independent Party, which strongly campaigned on grooming gangs.
Oldham has been at the centre of multiple investigations into child sexual exploitation and rape by gangs of men, a disproportionate number of whom were of Asian heritage.
Numerous reports have suggested that this sordid scandal had not been fully explored for fear of stoking racial tensions in a town which endured terrible race riots in 2001.
In 2024, when rape victims and many Oldham councillors called for the state to commission a statutory inquiry – which would compel witnesses to give evidence – the minister for ‘safeguarding’, Jess Phillips, said the Government would not intervene. This even prompted the US-based Elon Musk to call for Ms Phillips to be imprisoned.
The Oldham Group has three main pledges: increase the supply of council bulk waste removals, stop Labour introducing fines for parked cars on the town centre’s pavements and building a Muslim cemetery.
Mr Ghafoor, who previously stated he is ‘a Muslim first’, believes tension that surfaced during the separate electoral campaigns, although he defiantly refuses to believe it is racially stimulated, resulted in him becoming a ‘target’.
He added: ‘I felt threatened in TikTok videos by people who wanted to stand, quite a few from the Labour Party and from Reform.’
The councillor felt his personal character was attacked, as he was hit with claims ‘he was trying to make money from being a councillor’. He added: ‘People attack me personally not my politics.’
The father-of-four strongly denies claims he is gaining financially from his position, saying he donates his £12,000 councillor allowance to various charities.
While not naming potential perpetrators, Mr Ghafoor understands he is the only person who drives a black Ferrari in Oldham and has a private registration – which he has had since 18 – that clearly identifies him.
The councillor, who ‘enjoys’ his cars, bought the car in August last year with his personal wealth, accumulated through his 100-property strong business.
He is now waiting for the car’s repair, which includes a smashed windscreen and dent in the bonnet, at an estimated cost of around £10,000.
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Not unbeknown to Oldham, the incident follows several previous targetings of cars, including those owned by a candidate for Oldham Group, Shah Bahram, and Labour councillor, Jeremy Charters. In 2021 then-council leader Arooj Shah’s car was also set alight.
The recent car smashing has sparked anxieties over his family’s safety, as he ‘absolutely’ believes his loved ones are at threat. Mr Ghafoor said: ‘I don’t believe people understand how far this goes and the toll this has on my children.
‘Other children in their school see these videos and they try to bully my children. Thankfully they are stronger than most, but obviously it probably does affect them.’
It comes mere months after a building on King Street in Oldham, owned by KKS Investors, run by Ghafoor and colleague Sameer Zulqurnain, collapsed. Five people were injured.
The ‘Oldhamer born and bred’ councillor, whose dad came from Kashmir to work in a local mill, became a student activist at the local college.
He later became one of Manchester’s youngest councillors on a Labour ticket, and stepped away from politics in to build up a property business before returning as a Conservative councillor.
He was a keen fan of the Cameron coalition but fell out with the Conservatives when they told him he would need to attend ‘diversity training’ after attending a pro-Palestinian march in London in 2023.
Now, he has aligned with the far-Left firebrand George Galloway, and calls himself ‘a Muslim, a family man and a conservative in mindset – a capitalist but with a social conscience’.
