George Galloway becomes UK MP in election dominated by Israeli war on Gaza

Left-wing firebrand George Galloway has been elected to the UK parliament after tapping into anger over the Israeli war on Gaza in a by-election.

Galloway, 69, first became an MP in 1987 and will return to the House of Commons for the first time since 2015 after winning the seat of Rochdale, in northwest England, by nearly 6,000 votes on Friday.

During the campaign, the main opposition Labour party withdraw its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he touted a conspiracy theory that Israel had allowed Hamas to carry out its deadly attack on October 7.

Galloway put the Gaza conflict front and centre of his campaign in Rochdale, which has a 30 percent Muslim population.

"Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza," Galloway, leader of the fringe Workers Party of Great Britain, said in his victory speech, referring to Labour's leader.

"You have paid, and you will pay, 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 Gaza," he added.

Starmer, tipped by pollsters to become Britain's next prime minister following a general election due later this year, has been reluctant to criticise Israel and only recently backed calls for a ceasefire.

Labour's stance has caused divisions within the party and sparked several frontbench resignations, but pollsters say the centre-left outfit remains on track to oust the ruling Conservatives in the nationwide vote.

Galloway's ties with Labour

Galloway has been a thorn in the side of Labour since he was expelled from party in the 2000s.

His anti-war rhetoric will now pose a headache for Starmer once he is sworn into parliament on Monday.

But political analysts cautioned against reading too much into the result, in which the country's traditional three main parties failed to finish in either first or second place.

"If George Galloway can all of a sudden manufacture 20-30 clones to stand in the seats with the highest Muslim populations, and generate adequate resources to run a general election campaign, then maybe he can pose Labour a serious threat," said Chris Hopkins of polling firm Savanta.

"But realistically, Galloway is a bit of a maverick, a one-off, and has taken huge advantage of a non-campaign from the established parties in Rochdale."


He grabbed nearly 40 percent of the votes cast — on a turnout of 39.7 percent — while a local businessman and independent candidate was the surprise runner-up.

The by-election was triggered by the death of veteran Labour MP Tony Lloyd. A Labour spokesperson said the party "deeply" regretted that it was not able to have a candidate and apologised to Rochdale residents.

"George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand," said the spokesperson.

Scottish-born Galloway gained international attention in 2005 when he was called to testify over Iraq in the US Senate, giving a robust defence of his position to a hostile audience.
 He was expelled from Labour in part for calling on British troops "to refuse to obey illegal orders" in Iraq.

Galloway, then representing the Respect Party, ousted a Labour MP for a constituency in east London at the 2005 general election. He last represented a seat in Bradford, northern England, from 2012 to 2015.