Galloway’s victory is embarrassment for all
Mr Galloway’s Workers Party is not about to sweep to power across the country
Maverick George Galloway’s victory in the Rochdale by-election was an embarrassment for all the political parties.
Labour's decision to withdraw support from its candidate Azhar Ali over antisemitic comments meant it had effectively surrendered the seat, even though it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper. But the Tories, Lib Dems and Reform UK all polled poorly, leaving local businessman David Tully, standing as an independent, to take second place.
Mr Galloway’s Workers Party is not about to sweep to power across the country, but his success in a seat with a 30 per cent Muslim population is a sign that the main parties are failing to reflect the concerns of many voters about what is happening in Gaza.
The constituency’s history has certainly not been short of controversy. Once the seat of 19th century Radical Richard Cobden, a by-election in the town in 1958 was notable as the first ever to be televised.
And at another by-election in 1972, Rochdale chose 29-stone Liberal Cyril Smith as its MP. His win was the start of a mini Liberal revival which saw the party triumph in a whole string of by-elections over the next couple of years. Smith’s blunt style made him a popular figure, but allegations of serial sex abuse of young boys were covered up by the authorities and after his death in 2010 the Crown Prosecution Service said he ought to have been charged.
A book about Smith’s double life was later written by one of his successors as MP, Simon Danczuk, who won the seat for Labour in 2010. But he was suspended from the party in 2015 after it emerged he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. And he lost the seat in 2017.
Danczuk stood in last week’s by-election for the right-wing Reform UK. And although he claimed the election was a battle between himself and Galloway, he ended up in sixth place. With a general election looming, George Galloway’s days as Rochdale MP could be numbered. No doubt he will make the most of whatever time he has. And the election will show whether voters’ disillusionment with the other parties is still strong enough to get him re-elected.