George Galloway, the firebrand veteran British politician, made a triumphant return to Westminster’s Home of Commons on Monday after securing a thumping by-election victory in northwest England final week, largely because of his opposition to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Galloway, who represents the hard-left, fringe Employees Social gathering of Britain, which he based in 2019, took the constituency of Rochdale with 12,335 votes or 39.7 p.c of the vote.
The constituency was previously held by Labour’s Sir Tony Lloyd, whose demise in January triggered the by-election. Within the 2019 basic election, Lloyd received 53 p.c of the vote in Rochdale. However on February 12, the Labour Social gathering withdrew assist for its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he was accused of creating anti-Semitic feedback and it emerged he had urged that Israel had intentionally allowed the October 7 assault by Hamas to occur. The shunned Ali, who stood for election anyway, went on to ballot simply 7.7 p.c.
In his victory speech after his headline win final Thursday, the Scottish-born legislator, who has a keenness for fedora hats and reducing put-downs, signalled native voters’ disillusion with the mainstream events when he labelled the UK’s Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour’s opposition chief, Sir Keir Starmer, “two cheeks of the identical bottom”.
It was a usually provocative assertion from the four-times married Galloway, who, stridently pro-Palestinian, has campaigned in opposition to Israel’s battle on Gaza within the Larger Manchester city which hosts a big Muslim minority.
Who’s George Galloway?
Galloway, 69, hails from Dundee on Scotland’s east coast. He has lengthy been a thorn within the facet of the British political institution, not least since 2003 when then-UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair expelled him from the celebration because of his uncompromising opposition to the Iraq Conflict.
Galloway had as soon as been seen as a Labour Social gathering rising star, having change into chair of the Scottish Labour Social gathering at simply 26 in 1981. Six years later, he made good on his prospects when he received a UK Parliamentary seat in Scotland’s largest metropolis, Glasgow, whereas Conservative chief Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
Nonetheless, Galloway quickly revealed his style for the outlandish and the controversial when, nonetheless a newly elected member of Parliament, a journalist requested him in September 1987 about his attendance at a charity convention in Greece.
Bizarrely, he responded, “I travelled and spent numerous time with individuals in Greece, lots of whom have been girls, a few of whom have been identified carnally to me,” responded Galloway, who was then married to his first spouse, Elaine. “I really had sexual activity with a number of the individuals in Greece.”
Galloway’s spicy revelations earned him the moniker “Attractive George”.
His expulsion from the Labour Social gathering in October 2003 over his sturdy objection to the battle in Iraq didn’t dim his political ambitions. He served as an MP for the antiwar Respect Social gathering in London’s Bethnal Inexperienced and Bow from 2005 to 2010, and Bradford West in northern England from 2012 to 2015.
Whether or not Galloway’s determination to mimic a cat and nibble from a fellow contestant’s palms within the 2006 version of the UK’s standard actuality TV present Superstar Large Brother – described within the Instances this week as a “temple of vacuousness” – additionally added to his electoral enchantment in Rochdale is unknown.
Why is he so passionate concerning the Palestinian trigger?
Galloway attributes his dedication to the Palestinian trigger partly to a go to to war-torn Beirut in 1977. He would later recall of the journey, “Though it was a tough determination for me to make the journey again to Scotland, barely every week after my return, I made a pledge within the Tavern Bar in Dundee’s Hawkhill District, to dedicate the remainder of my life to the Palestinian and Arab trigger, regardless of the penalties for my very own political future.”
He stored his phrase and, in 1980, was concerned with the twinning of his native Dundee with Nablus within the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Financial institution.
He has frolicked within the Palestinian territories, assembly then-Palestinian chief Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in 2002.
In August 2014, Galloway was assaulted on a road in west London by a person sporting a shirt with an Israeli navy emblem, leaving him needing hospital therapy for cuts and bruises to his head and ribs. His assailant, Neil Masterson, was jailed later that 12 months for 16 months.
What extremely controversial positions has he taken?
In 1994, Galloway met then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and, in entrance of the TV cameras, said, “Sir, I salute your braveness, your power, your indefatigability.”
Galloway later claimed that he was saluting the individuals of Iraq, not Saddam Hussein himself. However his feedback prompted the politician’s many political detractors to accuse him of supporting an oppressive Iraqi regime. It additionally heralded the arrival of “indefatigability” – a hitherto not often used phrase – into the British public mainstream the place, for a lot of Britons of a sure age, it retains a considerably comical hyperlink to Galloway.
In his 2004 e book, I’m Not the Solely One, Galloway appeared to defend Iraq’s declare over Kuwait, describing the state – which was invaded by Saddam in 1990, sparking the primary Gulf Conflict – as “clearly part of the better Iraqi entire stolen from the motherland by perfidious Albion”.
Galloway’s curiosity in Iraq led to him being accused by the US Senate of taking advantage of Iraqi oil gross sales. The Briton, by no means one to shirk a problem, confronted down his accusers in 2005 when he appeared earlier than a Senate Subcommittee, and declared, in a transparent nod in the direction of Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witch-hunt of the early Fifties, “I’m not now nor have I ever been an oil dealer and neither has anybody on my behalf.”
In recent times, he has been compelled to refute allegations that he’s an “Assad apologist” relating to his perceived assist for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
How did Galloway safe such a powerful victory in Rochdale?
Galloway’s determination to marketing campaign on his opposition to Israel’s battle on Gaza, and to name out the UK’s staunch assist for the Israeli regime, was, it appears, a galvanising issue for a lot of voters in Rochdale the place, within the 2021 census, some 19 p.c of residents describe themselves as Muslim
The Scot’s success was additionally undoubtedly boosted by present disarray within the Labour Social gathering, which withdrew assist for Ali, regardless of him remaining a Labour candidate on the poll.
What has the response to Galloway’s election victory been?
Galloway’s win was sufficient to immediate Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to present an impromptu speech exterior his Downing Road residence final Friday by which he equated the legislator’s election to an increase in “extremism” within the UK.
Galloway – who has been accused of anti-Semitism by supporters of Israel, similar to in 2014 when he referred to as for Bradford to be declared an “Israel-free zone” – replied that he “despised” the British prime minister.
Labour chief Keir Starmer maintained that “Galloway solely received as a result of Labour didn’t stand a candidate.”
He added, “I remorse that we needed to withdraw our candidate and apologise to voters in Rochdale. However I took that call. It was the suitable determination.” Some commentators, nonetheless, stated that Galloway’s win will place Starmer beneath but extra strain to take a more durable stance on Israel.
Because the begin of the battle in Gaza, Labour’s place on the battle has been seen as too lenient in the direction of Israel by many Muslim voters and Labour Muslim politicians. Throughout the nation, greater than 60 Labour councillors have resigned in protest. In November 2023, 56 Labour MPs defied the celebration management to again the SNP’s name for an instantaneous ceasefire in Gaza.
The Marketing campaign Towards Antisemitism sounded alarm at Galloway’s victory, saying he had “an atrocious document of baiting the Jewish group”.
It added, “Given his historic inflammatory rhetoric and the present state of affairs confronted by the Jewish group on this nation, we’re extraordinarily involved by how he might use the platform of the Home of Commons within the remaining months of this parliament.”
The UK should maintain a basic election by January 2025, however many anticipate one to be referred to as later this 12 months.
