George Galloway celebrates after his election victory (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
He is a far-left, controversial politician, an admirer of Saddam Hussein, who was re-elected after nine years, thanks in part to his support for the Palestinian cause
In the United Kingdom, George Galloway, a highly controversial 69-year-old left-wing politician, admirer of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and whose career was considered over, has returned to the political news headlines: on Thursday he instead won a by-election for a seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons in Rochdale, northern England, and returned to Parliament after nine years. Galloway, who has been leader of the British Labor Party since 2019, had focused his election campaign on the war in Gaza and particularly criticized the country's main parties for their support of Israel with extremist and populist tones. In fact, Galloway has always supported the Palestinian cause and, according to many commentators, he would have received many votes from Rochdale's large Muslim community for this reason.
The Rochdale seat had remained vacant following the death of Labor MP Tony Lloyd and so voters in the constituency had returned to voting. Galloway's victory was also aided by the absence of a candidate from the Labor Party, the main British left-wing party: a few weeks ago he had actually withdrawn his support from the candidate Azhar Ali because of some of his comments, which were classified as “anti-Semitic”. Ali had accused Israel of He later apologized for voluntarily allowing Hamas to carry out the October 7 massacres as a pretext for the invasion of Gaza.
Galloway received 12,000 votes, behind him came an independent candidate, David Tully, and the Conservative candidate came third. Galloway said his party will present 60 candidates in the next national election, which will be held by January 28, 2025 (a date has not yet been set), with the aim of securing predominantly left-wing votes. The Labor Party was unconcerned about this possibility and deputy campaign coordinator Ellie Reeves described Galloway's victory as the result of “unique circumstances” and the impossibility of fielding a Labor candidate.
George Galloway in front of an aid truck on the way to Gaza (EPA/ALI ALI)
The BBC called Galloway's return to parliament a surprising “political rebirth” in a career that on several occasions looked like it was nearing its end.
Galloway was born in Dundee, Scotland, into a relatively poor family and worked at the local Michelin tire factory, where he became a trade unionist. His first political experience was on the Dundee City Council in 1980, where he distinguished himself by bringing the Palestinian flag to a meeting and advocating for a twin town relationship between the city and Nablus in the West Bank. He was first elected to Parliament with the Labor Party in 1987 and immediately took very radical positions with aggressive rhetoric. During the 1990s he developed a fairly continuous relationship with the Iraqi regime and visited Baghdad frequently. He was widely criticized because in one of these conversations in 1994, after the First Gulf War, he met Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and told him: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your tirelessness.”
With the Stop the War Coalition movement he became one of the main representatives of opposition to the UK's involvement in the war in Afghanistan and then Iraq. In 2003, he called the invasion of Iraq by US and British troops “illegal” and called on British soldiers sent to the country not to follow orders, claiming they too were “illegal”. Because of such riots he was expelled from the Labor Party. He then joined the Respect Party, which was founded in 2004 to represent a left-wing opposition to the Labor Party.
Over the years, Galloway supported increasingly radical positions and opposed what he called “American and Zionist imperialism.”
In 2005, he stood for election to the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, with the Respect Party and unexpectedly won a seat in the eastern suburbs of London, guaranteeing his return to Parliament. In 2006, he took part in the British Big Brother VIP, in which he was the protagonist of some questionable episodes: the most famous was when he pretended to be a cat drinking imaginary milk from the hands of another participant, an actress.
A meeting with Saddam Hussein in 2002 (EPA PHOTO/INA/ANSA/KLD)
He was elected twice more with the Respect Party in 2010 and 2012, but lost the following elections: with the same party, as an independent and then with the Workers' Party. He now also hosts a radio show that has been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism and another on the pro-Russian broadcaster Russia Today UK. Over the years, it has supported various illiberal regimes, including Iran's, which were driven primarily by the logic of opposition to Israel and the United States.
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