Galloway strikes fear into the Tories and Labour as he romps to victory

The political storm in the showroom

DRIVING through an industrial estate to the east of Rochdale town centre, it certainly didn’t feel like you were entering the epicentre of a national political storm.

The first hint was the scores of TV trucks, with their huge satellite dishes on their roofs, parked outside.

Inside the brightly lit Suzuki showroom, the nation’s media was starting to gather. As were supporters of George Galloway, who in the early hours of last Thursday morning was elected as the new MP for Rochdale.

The garage on Crawford Street has served as Mr Galloway’s campaign base for the duration of this by-election, which became one of the strangest and most tumultuous in recent memory. And on Friday night it was the setting for a party where Mr Galloway came to celebrate his victory with his campaigners and supporters.

Trestle tables were laid out around the perimeter with bottles of water and Irn Bru – presumably a nod to his Scottish heritage. And things started serenely enough. With just a handful of people in the room at this point, Mr Galloway made his way down a flight of metal stairs that lead into the main showroom from the offices.

Yet at that exact moment, a bombshell was unravelling that would see events take a different turn. The journalists huddled around an ipad at the foot of the stairs watched Prime Minister Rishi Sunak give an address from outside Downing Street.

Mr Galloway embraced some of the early arrivals, just moments after Mr Sunak described his election victory as ‘beyond alarming’ as he warned that British democracy is being targeted by extremists.

“What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence. Jewish children, fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity,” the Prime Minister said. “Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.

“Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPS do not feel safe in their homes. Longstanding parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns.

“And it’s beyond alarming that last night, the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP.”

Just minutes later, supporters gathered around as Mr Galloway went live on Sky News. But the mood began to change as Mr Sunak’s accusations were put to him. “Don’t talk to me about Rishi Sunak as if he’s Moses,” Mr Galloway said. And cheers broke out as he said: “I despise the Prime Minister, millions of people despise the Prime

Minister.”

“Are you a Labour press officer?” he asked another broadcaster. Many in the audience started to become hostile to the media, as further questions were put to Mr Galloway regarding the PM’S comments in several further TV interviews.

“You’re welcome to leave” and “Get out” some shouted at reporters, whilst one live link back to the studio was drowned out by chants of ‘Free, free Palestine.’

Hundreds of people were now crammed into the showroom and followed Mr Galloway around the room as he spoke to another TV station. He said he did not understand Rishi Sunak’s suggestions that he “glorifies Hezbollah” but hoped they could discuss it on Wednesday at PMQS if the Prime Minister “has the guts.”

He added that he “abhors extremism just as much as (Mr Sunak)” and “also agreed with him when he said change can only come through the democratic process”.

He was eventually shepherded on to a stage which had been erected at the back of the showroom and gave a speech to his supporters. He said: “The nature of tonight’s proceedings has become slightly confused. Most people thought they were coming here to our victory party. But the television cameras have turned up to question the result of the election”, to a background of boos from the crowd.

“They are going to have to suck it up” he continued. “We won a thumping majority.

“In Rishi Sunak’s words outside Downing Street, in a melodramatic pantomime just a few minutes ago, no matter who is alarmed about it, the people of Rochdale have spoken. And they are sending me to Parliament on Monday.

“I was lucky or unlucky maybe, maybe you were or weren’t, to watch the diminutive, diminished, degraded and soon to be departed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak question not just our election victory, but more significantly the right of the British people peacefully to protest against the slaughter in Gaza.”

He accused Mr Sunak of ‘deliberately trying to conflate protests and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people, most of them not Muslims by the way.’ “He’s trying to make it a Muslim thing, but it isn’t a Muslim thing,” he said.

Addressing the media, he said: “So

ROCHDALE’S new MP is Workers Party of Britain leader and ex-celebrity Big Brother star George Galloway.

The build-up to the election day in Rochdale was ‘chaotic’, ‘a shambles’, and ‘a circus’, if you listen to locals. The former Labour Party member and Celebrity Big Brother candidate George Galloway threw his famous fedora hat in the ring in order to punish his former party – and he has certainly delivered.

As soon as that massive win of 12,335 votes came in, the Workers Party of Britain man launched a direct threat towards Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” he opened. “There will be a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip.

“Rochdale councillors, I put you on notice that I intend to start a grand alliance that will change Rochdale for the better, just 12 weeks from now at the Local Election.

“Every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer and his Labour Party, he too would be very foolish if he did not realise that millions of other citizens of our country are too.

“Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside, and they both got well and truly smacked tonight.”

This result would have been deemed a shock a few weeks ago, in the end it almost became inevitable when asking various local political heavyweights.

It was a fitting end for what had been a whirlwind of an election which actually saw three exlabour men compete – if you count Azhar Ali.

The other was the previous Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who announced himself as the candidate for Reform UK. The two former Labour men coming out of the woodwork were just the first two of many twists to come.

The once ‘safe Labour seat’ suddenly was lost when they found themselves without a candidate. Azhar Ali, a Lancashire County councillor, had to apologise for ‘deeply offensive’ claims he made about Israel at the end of last year.

Despite saying his comments were ‘ignorant and false’, he still had Labour support removed.

A few days previously ‘regrettable’ historic tweets from Green Party’s candidate Guy Otten came to light.

This led to his party’s support being removed and he ‘left the stage’. Both incidents happened within the space of a week.

Despite both Guy Otten and Azhar Ali no longer getting the backing from their respective parties, they still appeared on the ballot next to the logos that selected them originally.

A total of 11 candidates were on the ballot paper, and the side note in this story is the success of the independents. David Tully, a local businessman found himself getting the second largest sum of votes, really driving home that feeling that locals wanted someone that truly cares for the area.

When you add Michael Howarth, Billy Howarth, Mark Coleman and even Azhar Ali, that is almost half the original list of candidates who were independent candidates.

This is not the last we will see of some, though, as they are looking ahead to plans for the future, maybe targeting the Local Elections in May.