George Galloway wins Rochdale by-election after Labour fiasco and declares: ‘This is for Gaza’

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

Mr Galloway has now received his fourth seat in parliament since 1987, having beforehand held seats for the Labour occasion and the Respect occasion.

Mr Galloway received the seat with a 39.7 per cent majority, receiving 12,335 votes.

In second place got here impartial candidate David Tulley, who received 6,638 votes and 21.3 per cent of the vote share.

The win is the climax to a extremely chaotic by-election, marked by demise threats, vandalism and candidates carrying stab vests.

Mr Galloway primarily based a lot of his marketing campaign on the battle in Gaza, attacking the Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to again a ceasefire within the area.

In Mr Galloway’s victory speech, he addressed Sir Keir Starmer straight, stating: “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. You will pay a high price for your role in this.”

He added: “Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside and they both got well and truly spanked tonight.”

The election was known as following the demise of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd.

Sir Tony had held the seat since 2017 and it was extensively anticipated that the occasion would retain it. However, Labour have been compelled to withdraw assist from their candidate, Azhar Ali, after it was revealed that he had instructed that Israel was complicit within the bloodbath of its personal folks on 7 October.

His title couldn’t be faraway from poll papers nevertheless it meant that the Labour occasion had no candidate within the race.

Mr Ali completed in fourth place with simply 2,402 votes – 7.7 per cent of the general vote share.

The consequence is more likely to place extra strain on Sir Keir to average his place on the Gaza battle, as Mr Galloway’s win followers hypothesis that left-wing challengers may peel off the Labour vote in constituencies throughout the nation.