Galloway the ‘MP for Gaza’ back in power

FOR some, George Galloway is best remembered for his bizarre appearance pretending to be a cat on Celebrity Big Brother, purring as he licked pretend milk out of actress Rula Lenska’s hand.

Others can never forget his warm words for dictators, saluting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain for his ‘courage’, ‘strength’ and ‘indefatigability’ and praising ‘Butcher of Damascus’ Bashar al-Assad.

After being down – and seemingly out – thanks to a decade of failed bids, the crisis which followed the Hamas attacks on Israel has once again propelled the fourtimes married father-of-six back into the corridors of power, where he was already being dubbed ‘the MP for Gaza’.

It is a shock return to frontline politics, Dundee-born Mr Galloway, 9, has now been elected to Parliament seven times for three different parties.

But the ex-Labour MP’s track record of sowing discord and division has sparked fears about his polarising impact on the debate over Israel’s actions in Gaza.

In the 1970s Mr Galloway was campaigning for Dundee to be twinned with Nablus, a city in the West Bank, and later said it was in 1977 he pledged to devote his life ‘to the Palestinian and Arab cause’.

Mr Galloway was chairman of the Scottish Labour Party at just 2 and became MP for the Glasgow Hillhead constituency in 1987, defeating the SDP’s Roy Jenkins.

Soon afterwards he earned his nickname ‘Gorgeous George’ following a conference in Greece where he boasted he had met many women during the trip, ‘some of whom were known carnally to me’.

After the first Gulf War he described Kuwait as ‘a part of the greater Iraqi whole’ and in 1994 met Hussein, notoriously telling him: ‘I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.’

In 2003 he was expelled from Labour after he called on British troops serving in Iraq to ‘refuse to obey illegal orders’.

But he retaliated by helping form the anti-war Respect Party and beating Labour’s Oona King in Bethnal Green and Bow in the 2005 general election.

However it was his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 200 which earned him enduring ridicule.

He failed to win a seat at the 2010 general election but two years later returned to Parliament after a by-election in Bradford West. After failing to defend the seat he came third in the 2021 Batley and Spen byelection following a campaign marred by claims of intimidation and homophobia,

Mr Galloway instead concentrated on his media career, presenting on Russian and Iranian TV channels broadcasting in the UK and regularly being reprimanded for failing to meet Ofcom rules on impartiality.

He has also been pictured with two heads of Hamas, including with current leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2009.