The Labour Party defied national trends in the Oxford local elections yesterday, with their seat count in the City Council dropping slightly from 21 to 20, against a national backdrop of major losses for the party. Multiple students at Oxford University stood unsuccessfully as candidates in wards across the city.

The Labour Party remains the largest party on the council. The Green Party gained four councillors, raising their total count to 13. The Liberal Democrats remained steady on a total of nine seats. The number of Independent councillors dropped from nine to six, with four now representing the Independent Oxford Alliance and two representing the Real Independents Group. The Conservatives and Reform UK still have no representation on the City Council.

A total of 24 councillors were up for election this year, with one councillor elected in each of the city’s 24 wards. Oxford City Council elects half of its councillors every two years, with each ward represented by two councillors overall. The Council remains under no overall control, meaning no party holds a majority. Labour previously held a majority on the Council for 13 years until the 2023 resignation of ten councillors in protest of Labour’s policy on the war in Gaza.

Holywell ward, the City Council ward with a majority student population, was held by the Green Party, with recent Oxford graduate Alfie Davis elected with an overwhelming majority of 622 votes over the Labour student candidate, Awab Kazuz.

Davis told Cherwell that the result in Holywell represents “a profound rejection of Labour” by students and a new form of “politics for the people”. Reflecting on the significance of the result for young people, Davis added that students represent a “unique social community… that is recognised very little”. However, they highlighted that their key takeaway from the Oxford results was the “ridiculously high” turnout, over 40% in most wards, describing this as a “real sign of young people showing interest in local elections”.

The results come amid major losses for the Labour Party in local councils across England, as well as projected losses in the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd. Speaking to Cherwell after his loss, Labour candidate Kazuz, a first-year student at St Edmund’s Hall and a member of the Oxford Labour Club Executive Committee, said he was “really proud of the campaign that we ran” and noted that the party was holding “marginal seats”. Kazuz rejected any suggestion that the night had been a “drumming” for Labour in Oxford, telling Cherwell: “We’re doing better than a lot of people expected us to do.” He also said he was “rooting for Alfie so that they can do the best that they can for the people of Holywell”.

Student candidates also stood in the Carfax and Jericho ward – Harriet Dolby for the Conservatives, and Vittorio Cuneo-Flood for Reform UK – with a candidate ultimately elected from the Green Party, replacing the incumbent Labour candidate. Student Harry Morgan stood unsuccessfully for the Liberal Democrats in Osney & St Thomas, Zelalemawee Asheber stood unsuccessfully for the Green Party in Walton Manor, and Indigo Haynes stood unsuccessfully for the Green Party in Blackbird Leys.

Speaking to Cherwell, Morgan, former President of the Oxford Student Liberals Organisation, highlighted the “disconnect between the University and local elections generally”, adding that students have seemingly been more engaged this year. Addressing the wider national result, however, Morgan warned of the rise of Reform UK for students, saying: “They don’t really believe in the climate crisis. I don’t think they have housing solutions. I don’t think they have the deep thinking to deal with any of the problems that are going to affect us.”

Reform UK has made gains in councils across England. Whilst no seats were won by Reform in Oxford, they increased their vote share across the city, and came second in three wards, all of which were won by the Labour Party.

Reflecting on the results of the night, Councillor Susan Brown, Labour Leader of the Council prior to the election, told Cherwell: “I feel we have listened to local residents. We have given a very positive program to the people of Oxford. And so I’m pleased and proud that at the end of tonight, we ended up as still very much the largest party…It seems to me that people are relatively happy with what we are putting forward.” 

Brown acknowledged that it had proved “very difficult…to communicate directly with students”, particularly in the Holywell ward, and recognised that Labour continued to lack a majority (25 seats) in the Council, telling Cherwell she was “always happy to work in partnership and collegiately” with other parties.

The outcomes in each ward were as follows:

Barton and Sandhills – Labour hold

Blackbird Leys – Labour hold

Carfax and Jericho – Green gain from Labour

Churchill – Labour hold

Cowley – Green gain from Independent

Cutteslowe and Sunnymead – Lib Dem hold

Donnington – Green hold

Headington – Lib Dem hold

Headington Hill and Northway – Labour Hold

Hinksey Park – Labour hold

Holywell – Green hold

Littlemore – Labour hold

Lye Valley – Green gain from Independent

Marston – Green hold

Northfield Brook – Labour Gain from Independent

Osney and St Thomas – Green hold

Quarry and Risinghurst – Labour hold

Rose Hill and Iffley – Labour hold

St Clement’s – Green gain from Labour

St Mary’s – Green hold 

Summertown – Lib Dem hold

Temple Cowley- Independent hold

Walton Manor – Labour hold

Wolvercote – Lib Dem hold

Arriving at Somerville College in its full summer pomp, Stanley Toyne and Cameron Spruce, the codirectors of Cross Keys Productions’ Macbeth, walked over with me to the college chapel as we discussed the ephemeral bother of collections and the issues of trying to work amidst glorious sunshine.

Once sat in the space, with the fitting set-up of three grand thrones in the middle of the chapel’s walkway, it was easy to understand why the two have decided to stage their modern, mafia-set take on Macbeth here. There is an otherworldly feel to the chapel, a non-denominational space, shorn of ornate religious trappings yet clearly somewhere to be treated with reverence. Everyone knows the basic story beats of Macbeth – duty, pride, betrayal, downfall – but the use of a chapel was key in protecting the core of the story in a new modern setting.

Discussing the setting, Stan highlighted that, as with the mafia context, the use of the chapel was a deliberate choice, and had in fact been the cause of some difficulties in securing a location for the production, with several chapels either being too expensive or unwilling to host a mafia-themed production. He highlighted the similarities in power relations between the feudal system of medieval Scotland, where the original play occurred, and the mafia – a veneration of violence, an emphasis on family and religiosity – that allowed the play to transpose well. Chiming in, Cameron highlighted that the transverse staging of the chapel with nave, transepts, and chancel offered not just a fluid feel to the play, but an interactive feeling, placing the audience in and among the drama.

The mafioso setting of the play raised questions – how would some of the main characters, particularly Lady Macbeth and her husband, Malcolm, Duncan, and the witches, translate into this  20th-century setting? They both talked at length about how Malcolm, rather than merely being the hapless heir to the amiable Duncan, was to be portrayed as an actor in his own right, capable and willing to manipulate those around him in advancement of his own goals, particularly the vulnerable MacDuff, when news of his family’s murder reaches him. The three witches each aspire to capture an element of mob life and also allude to the Greek mythology of the Fates. Each represents something Macbeth lacks and wants at certain points in the play: authority, love, and excess, capturing the cycle of Macbeth’s character without denying him the agency of his choices. In this production, Macbeth is not solely the unwilling tool of fate – though elements of the fantastical do endure in this plot – but rather an independent agent, influenced not just by his surroundings but also by himself, and so too is Lady Macbeth.

Of note should be the ease with which the two directors bounced off each other, and how the arrival of two cast members, playing Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, did not prompt any great change of character or slip into a new persona. Instead, they genially integrated their cast into the interview, allowing me to enquire about how they found the role, the directorial approach, and their approach to the characters. Working within the setting dictated by the directors, both felt a range to explore the emotional depth of the characters, particularly with Macbeth stylised as more of a bruiser in this play, substituting swords and rapiers for pistols and knives, and Lady Macbeth made to be more than the particularly reductive versions produced in certain modern adaptations, like the Patrick Stewart-led modern take on Macbeth. They both lean into the stereotypical mob depictions of their roles, but Lady Macbeth uses it far more knowingly as a public facade, with her ability to occupy a sweeping veranda of opinion towards her emotionally complex, yet explosive, husband a core part of this rendition’s characterisation.

Both Cameron and Stanley have acted in OUDS productions before, with Cameron giving an excellent turn as Wriothesley in last year’s production of Wolf Hall at Christchurch. They spoke candidly of how their experience on the other side of the dynamic influenced their open, approachable attitude towards the actors, and how an unexpected delay over the spring vac allowed the actors to further develop their characterisations. The play’s newly composed organ score, courtesy of Peter Hardistry, functions as what Cameron described as “motivic glue”, highlighting the changing power relations and positions of the character as the play moves towards its ultimate conclusion. The production effortlessly combines the old with the new to produce what promises to be a thrilling rendition of the Scottish Play.