The return of George Galloway

 

The return of George Galloway

BY DAN BLOOM

MARCH 1, 2024 8:09 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/the-return-of-george-galloway/

 

London Playbook

By DAN BLOOM

with NOAH KEATE

 

DRIVING THE DAY

HE’S BACK: Nine years after he last left parliament, George Galloway is an MP again. The firebrand left-winger won the seat of Rochdale last night after a divisive and chaotic by-election truly unique in modern times. This is what happens when the bitter Middle East conflict spills over into local politics … and when both main parties desert the pitch.

 

Reality check: Obviously, this was not a normal fight; Labour left a vacuum in one of its safest seats by disowning conspiracy-peddling candidate Azhar Ali. And all of this may yet be forgotten amid the fire of a general election campaign. But for now Galloway intends to make life harder for those he dislikes in Westminster — most notably Labour leader Keir Starmer. He has nine months to make his mark.

 

His target: Inside Rochdale leisure center — where the by-election count was held — a jubilant Galloway told the crowd: “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza … You will pay a high price in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe.” Dozens more Galloway supporters celebrated in the car park outside as police manned the doors.

 

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It wasn’t even close: Galloway’s team were so confident they were briefing victory barely an hour after the polls had closed. One of Britain’s most controversial orators had secured nearly double the votes of his closest rival — an independent local businessman — on a 39.7 percent turnout, slightly higher than last month’s by-elections in Kingswood and Wellingborough. Ex-Labour candidate Azhar Ali came a miserable fourth, behind the Tories.

 

Coming attractions: Labour’s election co-ordinator Ellie Reeves is on the morning round, including the Today program at 8.10 a.m. … Good luck to her. As for Galloway? He plans to return to his Rochdale Suzuki garage HQ for a high-profile victory party with “samosas and speeches” at 6 p.m. tonight — before heading to Westminster to be sworn in as an MP on Monday. Buckle up.

 

Labour responds: In a 5.30 a.m. statement, the party said “we apologise to the people of Rochdale” for the debacle that lost Labour a viable candidate. “George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand” and is “only interested in stoking fear and division,” the party said. “He will be a damaging force in our communities and public life.”

 

POSTCARD AT 3.30 AM: A powder-blue Lamborghini growled outside Galloway’s campaign HQ at Rochdale Suzuki, an unnamed ally seated inside. Hacks crowded round a 1980s red Mercedes by the door as they waited for the man himself to arrive. Galloway walked in, accompanied by his wife, fist raised in victory. He told the waiting media scrum that Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “are two cheeks of the same arse … And that arse was spanked, knocked out of the park.”

 

Meet the press: Packed in around the car, Galloway told Newsnight’s Nick Watt: “I know you’re so sad about the result … all I can say is, cry more, cry more, cry more.” When Watt mentioned Starmer, a Galloway supporter heckled: “He’s a war criminal. Get rid of him.”  Another supporter muttered of the journalists: “It’s such a punch in their gut, isn’t it?” Galloway then disappeared into the back of the showroom, leaving his supporters and hacks unsure if that was it for the night.

 

Subtle: Moments later, a “Starmer for genocide” placard, a caricature of the Labour leader’s face with two pointed teeth and black liquid dripping from hollow eyes, was brought in and propped up prominently in a corner of the showroom.

 

SO WHAT NOW? Galloway’s brand of politics could hardly clash more starkly with MPs who have been voicing fears for their safety over the tone of Israel/Gaza protests. One need only watch his two-hour YouTube videos for a sense of how strong his language will be in the chamber. One this week condemned “Netanyahu and these barbaric killers,” who “seem to have a fetish of going through the underwear drawers of Gazan women they have murdered.”

 

A long record: The Campaign Against Antisemitism said overnight that Galloway “has an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community.”

 

They don’t agree: Men gathered outside the count — one of whom told Playbook he’d come from Buckinghamshire — insisted Gaza wasn’t the only campaign issue, just the biggest one. “I just think he’s got a backbone,” said another. “He’ll be a voice for Rochdale and for Palestine.”

 

As for the general election: Galloway claimed his victory would “spark a movement” and touted 60 candidates for his Workers’ Party — though he told the BBC “we won’t necessarily use them all.” Joe Twyman of Deltapoll was, well, skeptical, given this by-election was so exceptional.

 

But but but … Twyman told the BBC it was a bad night for Starmer all the same — as David Tully, an independent Rochdalian who campaigned on the football club, maternity ward, potholes and litter, came a clear second. Two essentially independent candidates coming first and second has “never happened in the modern era,” said Twyman.

 

ALSO A BAD NIGHT FOR … Reform UK who came sixth with 6.3 percent, below national polling despite putting up ex-Rochdale MP (of sexting fame) Simon Danczuk. Leader Richard Tice told his employers at GB News that his team had “suffered daily intimidation” in a campaign marked by “menacing behavior … including today outside polling stations.”

 

Big allegations: Tice said he was “concerned by the sudden increase also in the size of the postal vote,” adding: “This shameful contest has been the sort of thing you might expect to see in a failed state.” Danczuk is on a morning media round.

 

More big allegations: Galloway responded to Tice in typical fashion by telling Sky: “I have on my telephone a text from him, inviting me to be the Reform UK candidate in a by-election not that long ago … If he keeps telling lies about me, I’ll have to tell the truth about him.”

 

Tit-for-tat: Tice sent a 4.30 a.m. statement to Playbook saying: “I genuinely have no idea what Mr Galloway is referring to. It is clearly an attempt to distract attention away from the appalling way that this by election in Rochdale has been conducted.” Asked directly if he’d ever texted Galloway, his spokesperson did not comment further.

 

RESULTS IN FULL: Galloway (Workers) 12,335 (39.7 percent) … Tully (Ind) 6,638 (21.3 percent) … Paul Ellison (Con) 3,731 (12 percent) … Azhar Ali (Ind) 2,402 (7.7 percent) … Iain Donaldson (LD) 2,164 … Simon Danczuk (Reform) 1,968 … William Howarth 523 … Mark Coleman 455 … Guy Otten (Ind) 436 … Michael Howarth 246 … Ravin Rodent Subortna (Loony) 209 — on a 39.7 percent turnout.

 

POTTED PROFILE: Galloway, 69, was as an MP from 1987 to 2010 and 2012 to 2015. Born in Dundee, he joined Labour’s Young Socialists aged 13. His profile rose after meeting Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. Expelled from Labour in 2003 for “bringing the party into disrepute,” he won Bethnal Green and Bow from the party at the 2005 election for Respect. Galloway again triumphed against Labour in the 2012 Bradford West by-election by more than 10,000 votes. Long-memoried voters might know him best for pretending to be a cat on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006.

 

Next question: Which two MPs will flank their new colleague as he’s sworn in? Both chief whips? Mother and father of the House? Galloway told Sky he wants Tory David Davis and, er, Jeremy Corbyn to lead him in.

 

Meanwhile, in football: Keir Starmer has a planned media appearance today, but it’s *checks notes* a pre-recorded interview discussing his hopes for Arsenal with Chelsea women’s manager Emma Hayes on Sky Max’s Fantasy Football League at 9.45 p.m.