As many people have called for a newly-elected Oxford city councillor to resign as those who voted for him.

Alex Hollingsworth was elected to Oxford City Council earlier this month, winning the Carfax by-election for Labour.

But the timing of the election proved controversial with most students, who make up the majority of the ward’s residents, absent. This led to a turnout of only 8.6 per cent.

In May’s elections, the turn-out for the other councillor seat in Carfax saw a turn-out of 36.04 per cent as it switched from Liberal Democrat to Greens.

Our top stories

A petition has been launched calling for Mr Hollingsworth – a former leader of the city council – to resign so the election can be run again.

As of yesterday 168 people had signed the petition, which matches the number who voted Labour on September 4.

The petition on change.org was started by Nathan Akehurst and has been signed by a number of students who are unhappy at the timing of the by-election.

The poll was triggered by the resignation of former Labour city councillor Anne-Marie Canning for personal reasons.

On the petition, Oxford University student Mr Akehurst said: “When by-elections are necessary they should of course be held.

“But we feel that the timing of the move was at best unnecessary and incompetent, whilst at worst may have been a cynical attempt to manufacture an election win when students (who are historically locally more likely to vote against Labour across the spectrum) were not present.

“We believe that there are too many questions that need answering, and that the circumstances of the election go against the spirit of democracy. We cannot accept a mandate for a councillor elected on a horrifically low turnout when most electors were not present.”

A total of 380 people voted in the Carfax by-election compared to an electorate of 4,446.

Former Lib Dem city councillor for Carfax Tony Brett stood against Mr Hollings-worth, coming second with 101 votes. He disagreed that the election should be rerun.

He said: “I have nothing personal against Alex and I am sure he will work hard for people in the ward. I just don’t like the way he won the seat.

“The only thing that could happen now is that he could choose to resign, but I don’t see why he should do that.

“He is only serving for two years until the next election and it would cost more public money.

“I think it was incredibly cynical of Labour to call the election when it did.

“They must have known that all the students would have been away.”

The Oxford Mail contacted Mr Hollingsworth, who served as leader of the city council between 2002 and 2006, but he did not respond.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.