Galloway could take on Burnham for mayor role
GEORGE Galloway is considering standing against Andy Burnham, the Observer can reveal.
The new Rochdale MP who won a by-election two weeks ago is now looking at running to be Greater Manchester’s mayor.
Returning to Parliament for a seventh time following his by-election win, Mr Galloway took aim at the Labour mayor in his first speech back in the House of Commons.
He has put Labour ‘on notice’, threatening to wipe them off the local council and promising to field candidates for Parliament across the country including in Greater Manchester.
He is now thinking about entering the race to become Greater Manchester’s mayor in May.
He has told the Observer that if he stands for mayor, he would run on a platform of getting a ‘better deal’ for the city’s surrounding towns.
The Workers Party of Britain leader put the war in Gaza front and centre of his by-election campaign in which he won the support of many members of the town’s Muslim community.
During the campaign, he told the Observer that, if he wins and returns to Parliament, he would speak about Gaza first, before raising local issues affecting Rochdale.
But in his first speech back in Parliament this week, he spoke at length about the town which he claims has been ‘abandoned by the state’. He also took aim at Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor for ‘abandoning’ Rochdale too.
He said: “This town, which was once one of the most prosperous in England, is now one of the poorest, abandoned not just by the government but abandoned by the Mayor of Greater Manchester for whom I have no animus - quite the contrary, at least until recent weeks.
“But he has to understand that he is the Mayor of Greater Manchester, not just the mayor of Manchester. What about the towns around Manchester that get the wrong end of the stick?”
Asked whether he is
considering standing against Mr Burnham in May, Mr Galloway said: “If I stand it would be on a platform of a better deal for Manchester’s surrounding towns. Andy Burnham has been seduced by the undoubtedly bright lights of the metropolis.
“But it’s fairly dark and austere out here in ‘Greater’ Manchester.”
Mr Galloway, who has contested seven different Parliamentary constituencies since he was expelled from Labour 21 years ago, entered the race to become London’s mayor in 2016. He came seventh winning 1.4 per
cent of the votes. A spokesperson for Mr Burnham said: “Two weeks to the day after being elected, the new MP for Rochdale now says he wants another job. Well he will have to choose as he can’t do both.
“He couldn’t have made it clearer if he tried that Rochdale is just somewhere he has used for his own ends.
He also seems unaware that Rochdale will see the biggest change in 40 years a week on Sunday as its buses go back under public control - an inconvenient fact which destroys the entire basis of Mr Galloway’s Mayoral bid.”