Bookies back ‘confident’ Galloway to win Rochdale

George Galloway is confident of becoming the next MP for Rochdale as the final full week of campaigning in the by-election begins.

The one-time Labour and Respect Party MP, now of the Workers Party of Britain, is also the bookies’ favourite, following the implosion of the Labour Party campaign last week.

Azhar Ali, the Labour candidate, had party support withdrawn over remarks suggesting Israel was complicit with the massacre of its own people in the October 7 terrorist attack.

Mr Galloway's campaign is heavy on the Palestinian cause and Gaza, an issue close to the heart of many of Rochdale's Muslim population.

His campaign believes 15,000 votes are enough to win most by-elections – and Rochdale has a 30,000-strong Asian community. Mr Galloway said: “Obviously these are quite unusual circumstances. So yes, bookies’ favourite and the bookies are not usually wrong. But we are not taking anything for granted. Confident but not complacent.”

Mr Galloway says Gaza and Palestine is not the only issue he is campaigning on, citing the closure of local maternity services, the NHS, the economy and Rochdale – one of the poorest towns in England.

He said: “When you've got a town in which you cannot be born, it’s not really a town at all. You lose, first in a small way and later completely, you lose your identity and the people of Rochdale once had a proud identity. This was the town of Gracie Fields. This was a town people were glad to say they came from

“The football club is a metaphor; it got relegated, relegated, relegated until it fell out of the league altogether. And that’s what's happened to the town."

He denies his campaign is stirring up trouble and division, as claimed by opponents.