Who is George Galloway, the new MP for Rochdale?

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George Galloway will make one more return to parliament.

The political firebrand has received by the Rochdale by-election for the Workers Party of Britain, basing his marketing campaign in opposition to Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer’s place on the conflict in Gaza.

Mr Galloway’s return to politics will probably be his fourth parliamentary seat, after the candidate made headway all through Rochdale along with his pro-Palestine place.

George Galloway received the Rochdale by-election for the Workers Party of Britain with 12,335 votes.

Addressing the crowd, Mr Galloway mentioned: “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. You will pay a high price for enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza Strip.”

Who is George Galloway?

Mr Galloway was Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead from 1987, and after that constituency was abolished earlier than the 1997 election, he turned Labour MP for its successor, Glasgow Kelvin.

He was expelled from the Labour occasion in 2003 for bringing the occasion into disrepute, after he referred to as the then Labour Government “Tony Blair’s lie machine”, and mentioned British troops preventing in Iraq ought to refuse to obey their orders.

He remained in his Glasgow seat till the subsequent election, after which went on to hitch the Respect Party, representing it in the Bethnal Green & Bow and Bradford West constituencies.

Why is he a controversial determine?

He has lengthy been an ardent supporter of the Palestinian folks and staunch critic of Israel, calling for the dismantling of the “Zionist state”.

But he has additionally been accused of antisemitism, together with when he was sacked by TalkRadio in 2019 for congratulating Liverpool FC over beating Tottenham Hotspur FC in the Champion League ultimate by tweeting “No Israël flags on the Cup!”

He was beforehand accused of racism in 2013 for strolling out of a debate at Oxford University after discovering that his opponent was an Israeli citizen. “I don’t debate with Israelis,” he mentioned

Mr Galloway has additionally performed and mentioned issues which might have spelled the finish of different politicians’ careers, together with being vilified in the press for assembly Saddam Hussein. The ex-MP was criticised in 2012 for showing to state that having intercourse with an unconscious girl can be “bad sexual etiquette” however not rape.

And, standing in Bradford West in 2015 in opposition to Labour MP Naz Shah, who had written about being pressured to marry as a teen, Mr Galloway accused her of mendacity about the particulars.

Adding to the controversy surrounding him, Mr Galloway shared a pretend AI-generated audio clip of Labour chief Sir Keir suggesting he didn’t care about Labour dropping the Rochdale contest so long as he was “scoring points with Israel”.

Why did he stand standing in Rochdale?

Announcing his marketing campaign, Mr Galloway mentioned there is “no future” for Britain as a Tory Labour duopoly the place each main events “stand for entirely the same things… including on the supremely important issues of war and peace”.

He painted the Rochdale by-election as a possibility for constituents to ship a message of help to “the people soaking wet, freezing cold hungry, living out in the open in Gaza”.

He insisted that “the people of Gaza would be voting for me in the Rochdale by-election” and urged voters to again him to ship a message to Sir Keir and the “British political class”.

How did George Galloway win?

George Galloway received the Rochdale by-election for the Worker’s Party of Britain, overturning a Labour majority of 9,668.

He took nearly 40 per cent of the vote and a majority of virtually 5,700.

Rochdale represents Mr Galloway’s fourth completely different seat in parliament since 1987, an achievement which – he famous – emulates Winston Churchill.

Second to Mr Galloway was David Tully, who received 6,638 votes as an unbiased candidate campaigning on native points.

Turnout was 39.7%.