Veteran is aiming to teach Labour a lesson
But Workers Party chief also vows to ‘put heart back into town’
MANY people will remember him as the man who pretended to be a cat licking milk from Rula Lenska’s cupped hands on Celebrity Big Brother.
But in politics, George Galloway is known for causing election upsets and controversy, often at the Labour Party’s expense.
The 69-year-old Scotsman threw his trademark fedora into the ring for the Rochdale by-election following the death of his ‘old friend’ Sir Tony Lloyd last month.
The experienced election campaigner, who served as an MP for 26 years, wants to ‘teach Labour a lesson.’
An outspoken advocate for the Palestinian cause, Mr Galloway has put the war in Gaza front and centre of his campaign to return to Parliament, capitalising on the anger many Muslim voters have expressed over Labour’s stance on the conflict.
Mr Galloway told the Observer he will speak about the issue at the first opportunity in Parliament if he wins - before raising the concerns of the people Rochdale.
But he has promised to ‘put the heart back into Rochdale,’ with his supporters saying this is ‘not just about Palestine.’
Speaking to the Observer from his campaign headquarters at Rochdale’s Suzuki showroom, he promised to use his celebrity status to speak ‘loudly,’ ‘eloquently’ and ‘definitely powerfully’ - for ‘all the people of Rochdale, on all the issues that affect us here.’
He speaks proudly of his record representing three different places during his time as an MP and hopes to ‘equal Winston Churchill’ as ‘the only person in modern history’ to represent a fourth if he wins in Rochdale.
Not everyone remembers his time as an MP so fondly.
Since his expulsion from the Labour Party in 2003, for whom he won four elections in Glasgow, Mr Galloway has entered seven races to represent six different constituencies - including Manchester Gorton, which he lost in 2017.
He left Parliament in 2010 after 23 years, having represented Bethnal Green and Bow in London for the Respect Party in the last five, before returning as a Bradford MP in 2012.
Labour beat him to win back Bradford West at a general election three years later and, since then, his electoral record has slipped.
In 2021, he stood in the Batley and Spen by-election, but came third as the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox retained the seat for Labour.
Now, the Workers Party of Britain leader fancies his chances in Rochdale.
He says he is fighting for the votes of ‘everybody’ in the town - but his appeal has historically been most notable among Muslim voters, many of whom live in the constituencies he has contested.
Around a fifth of the electorate in the Rochdale constituency is Asian, according to the PA news agency.
Some of Mr Galloway’s supporters have told the Observer they believe most Asian and Muslim residents will back him.
Chris Turner, a party member from Middleton, said there are ‘quite a few’ white men and women supporting Mr Galloway, who has galvanized some voters in the area.
“Young people don’t see politics as for them anymore,” he said, before referring to a conversation with an elderly white woman who had not heard of him, but will back him over Gaza.
The Palestinian flag appears on Mr Galloway’s election leaflets, events and outside his campaign headquarters at the Suzuki showroom near the town centre.
His social media accounts are full of content about the conflict in the Middle East, including clips from his bi-weekly broadcast on the ‘Mother of all Talkshows,’ which he continues to present during his election campaign.
He has also used social media to make pledges to the Rochdale electorate.
Last week he told his followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he has already resurrected Rochdale’s indoor market after meeting with the owners of the site.
He has also expressed his opposition to cuts at Rochdale Infirmary on X, writing ‘Not if I’m elected!!!’ in reference to a newspaper article
from 2010.
Mr Galloway promised to restore maternity services in Rochdale - claiming he came up with the idea before Labour’s by-election candidate did - and revealed that he is already in talks about bringing a Primark store to the town.
Looking back at what he ‘left behind’ in Bradford, he cites ‘concrete evidence’ of his achievements such as the ‘bustling and thriving’ Odeon, which was set to be demolished, as well as the Westfield shopping centre, which he said was a ‘hole in the ground’ before he was the MP.
Whether or not he can claim credit for these achievements, voters in Bradford West did not reward him three years later.
Mr Galloway’s stint as Bradford West MP has been described by some as ‘chaotic.’
But speaking to the Observer, a reporter who covered the Bradford area at the time, said Mr Galloway’s status as a ‘celebrity MP’ meant issues he raised would receive more attention.
Reflecting on this period, the journalist, who asked not to be named, said: “Because of who he was, an issue that might not get any further than the pages of the local papers would make national stories, whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“You didn’t feel his presence in everyday politics.
“But when he did choose to make his presence felt, it was huge whatever he was talking about.”
During his time representing the constituency, Mr Galloway made 62 spoken contributions in Parliament, many of which were about the Middle East.
But he also raised some local issues, securing a debate on the feared closure of the town’s National Media Museum.
Mr Galloway has been described by his opponents as an ‘absent MP.’
Labour’s Naz Shah, who beat Mr Galloway in 2015, said he only voted 180 times in his combined eight years as MP for Bradford West and an earlier spell as MP in Bethnal Green and Bow in London.
Responding to these criticisms, Mr Galloway told the Observer he was in Parliament ‘every day’ during his time as MP, but said that he would ‘seldom wish to vote’ for the Prime Minister’s motions or the opposition’s amendments.
He said: “I think even my enemies would concede, I was for 27 years, one of the highest profile Members of Parliament and if I win this, I’ll be even more high profile.
“It’s them that’s absent. They might be present, but nobody knows, nobody notices.”
The reporter, who covered the 2015 general election count in Bradford, said Mr Galloway made election campaigns ‘a lot livelier’ even at local government level where his Respect Party won seats on Bradford council.
The reporter added: “I think a lot of people were more enthused about voting. He must have excited people a bit more. He was someone who came along and shook things up a bit.
“For people who might have not put much thought into who they voted for, when he emerged, they had another option.”
Mr Galloway told the Observer the Workers Party of Britain, which he leads, will run ‘a full slate of candidates’ at the local council elections in Rochdale in May.
He also said he intends to defend the seat at the next general election if he wins the vote this month.
Asked about his 2015 defeat in Bradford West, Mr Galloway said he did not want to ‘go into’ why he lost the seat by a 11,420 vote margin, because he doesn’t ‘want to sound like a conspiracy theorist.’
He said: “The facts are I defeated Labour with a record swing, a record majority. Nobody to the left of Labour has ever beaten Labour as many times as me, as comprehensively as me. And I think on the 29th we’ll do it again. Although
Labour are not on the ballot, Labour’s control of the town council is very much on the ballot.”
Mr Galloway has lost his last four bids to become MP, including in Bradford West, Manchester Gorton and West Bromwich East, where he came second, third, then sixth at general elections and most recently at the Batley and Spen by-election in 2021.
He won in London’s
Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2005 general election, but lost in neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse, where he stood in 2010.
Mr Galloway was first elected as the Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead in 1987, before representing the constituency’s successor, Glasgow Kelvin, remaining as MP for the seat until 2005.
Mr Galloway was expelled from Labour in 2003 for bringing the party into disrepute with comments he made on the Iraq War, having previously faced criticism for praising the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
In 2004, Mr Galloway became a member of
Respect - The Unity Coalition, which later changed its name to the Respect Party, which he eventually led. He dubbed that victory, win which he overturned a huge Labour majority, the ‘Bradford Spring’ - although days later his Twitter account referred to the ‘Blackburn Triumph,’ before suggesting it had been hacked, saying: “Nice try. Password now changed.”
Asked why he chose to stand in Rochdale - the seventh constituency he has contested in 20 years - he said ‘because there’s a byelection,’ before adding that he is ‘deeply connected’ to Greater Manchester, where two of his sons live and his daughter was born.
The ‘long-suffering supporter’ of Manchester United said he has been speaking in Rochdale for 25 years and that his ‘hundreds of friends’ in the town persuaded him to stand in the by-election.
Mr Galloway’s anti-israel stance has caused controversy in the past.
He told the Observer comments made by his exlabour opponent in the byelection - who is no longer being backed by the party that Israel allowed the deadly Hamas attack on October 7 to justify invading Gaza were ‘stupid, ignorant, false, inflammatory and unacceptable’ - but he said that the claim was not ‘antisemitic.’
Nevertheless, he slammed Mr Ali’s other comments referring to ‘Jewish control of the media and so on.’
“Nobody to the left of Labour has ever beaten Labour as many times as me.”