{"id":282731,"date":"2024-03-01T09:31:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T09:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=282731"},"modified":"2024-03-02T06:35:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T06:35:42","slug":"george-galloway-wins-sweeping-victory-in-rochdale-byelection-saying-this-is-for-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=282731","title":{"rendered":"George Galloway wins sweeping victory in Rochdale byelection, saying \u2018this is for Gaza\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Halliday and Aneesa Ahmed \u2013 The Guardian March 1, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The veteran political agitator George Galloway<\/a> declared \u201ca shifting of the tectonic plates\u201d away from Labour after claiming a stunning victory in the Rochdale byelection.<\/p>\n

Galloway, one of the most divisive politicians in Britain, won almost 40% of the vote in a contest beset by chaos and controversy and dominated by the conflict in Gaza.<\/p>\n

He took aim at Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak in a victory speech that was interrupted by hecklers after a dramatic count at Rochdale leisure centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir Starmer, this is for Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cYou 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 Gaza, in the Gaza Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galloway won 12,335 votes \u2013 39.7% of the total \u2013 in a much more sweeping victory than anyone had predicted, giving him a 5,697-vote majority.<\/p>\n

A surprise second place went to David Tully, a local businessman who stood as an independent, saying he would speak up for the town rather than use it as a vehicle for political ambition.<\/p>\n

Labour, which abandoned its candidate<\/a>, Azhar Ali, over inflammatory comments he made about Israel, finished in fourth place with just 7.7%, having held a near-10,000 vote majority in the constituency.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Ali in third was the Conservative candidate, Paul Ellison, who was barely visible on the campaign trail, and is understood to have spent some of the period on holiday.<\/p>\n

Galloway, an ex-Labour MP, has now unseated his former party in three elections and will return to parliament representing a fourth constituency in 37 years.<\/p>\n

Addressing Starmer from the podium, Galloway said: \u201cThis is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates, a score of parliamentary constituencies, beginning here in the north-west, in the West Midlands, in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green & Bow.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour is on notice that they have lost the confidence of millions of their voters who loyally and traditionally voted for them generation after generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali did not attend the count and the Guardian understands that other Labour campaigners were told to stay away.<\/p>\n

Despite a campaign dominated by events in the Middle East, Galloway said he hoped to put together a \u201cgrand alliance\u201d with Rochdale councillors to work on local issues.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Galloway supporters had gathered outside the leisure centre shortly after the polls closed, when it quickly became apparent that he was set for a decisive victory.<\/p>\n

Inside the count, however, the mood was less hospitable. A family member of a rival candidate muttered \u201cterrorist sympathiser\u201d while another shouting \u201cwoe to Rochdale\u201d after he was declared the winner.<\/p>\n

Another heckler, who gave her name as Jane Twill, was removed by security after interrupting the victory speech by accusing Galloway of failing to address the climate emergency.<\/p>\n

His victory comes after one of the most controversial and chaotic byelections<\/a> in recent memory.<\/p>\n

So confident was Galloway\u2019s team that they briefed reporters within an hour of the polls closing that he had won \u201ccomfortably\u201d and announced plans for a \u201cmass rally\u201d immediately after the declaration at his election headquarters, a former Suzuki showroom.<\/p>\n

Labour, defending a near-10,000-vote majority and riding high in the polls, had expected a straightforward contest to replace the sitting MP, Tony Lloyd, who died on 17 January<\/a> from leukaemia. But its campaign was thrown into disarray when it emerged its candidate had repeated anti-Israel conspiracy theories about the 7 October attack by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Labour was eventually forced to disown Ali<\/a> and abandoned its campaign barely a week into the contest. Although Ali\u2019s name was on the ballot paper \u2013 it was too late to select another candidate \u2013 Labour stopped all electioneering in the town nearly three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a major upset, political maverick George Galloway won the Rochdale by-election with decisive majority. The contest was dominated by Gaza and it marks an ominous turn for the opposition Labour Party\u2019s general election prospects <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":282733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282732,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282731\/revisions\/282732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/282733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}