How George Galloway could make a shock return to Westminster | Rochdale by-election

Full Candidate list:
Azhar Ali, Labour
Paul Ellison, Conservative
Simon Danczuk, Reform
Guy Otten, Green
William Howarth, Independent
George Galloway, Workers Party of Britain

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From The River To The Sea pal will be free from The River To The Sea palese will be free from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free in our thousands in our Millions we are all Palestinians in our thousands in our Millions voters in Rochdale will head to

The polls on the 29th of February the byelection that has dominated the new cycle has been centered not on local issues but on a crisis in the middle least emerging as front runner is George Galloway the former MP who was expelled from the labor party in 2003 for his

Vocal opposition to the Iraq invasion it could have been another labor win until the candidate Azar Ali was caught on camera suggesting Israel had deliberately relaxed security after warnings of an imminent threat on October 7th at first he had the continued support of Labor as our Ali is

Not a Carbonite he spent his career working on intercommunity relations he was even an adviser to Tony Blair he Stood Beside Dame Louise Elman when she was suffering extreme anti-semitic abuse but 36 hours later the party eventually withdrew support after a second round of comments emerged in the mail certain

Information came to light over the weekend in relation to the candidate there was a fullsome apology further information came to light yesterday calling for decisive action so I took decisive action it is a huge thing to withdraw support for a labor candidate during the course of a byelection it’s a tough decision a

Necessary decision but when I say the labor party has changed under my leadership I mean it as our Ali no longer has the support canvases posters or money usually supplied by the labor party at his constituency office the shutters are down phones have been left off the hook canvas have gone home

Alli’s campaign has been left to drift off aimlessly like the Mary Celeste but due to an archaic instruction by the Electoral Commission because it’s passed in arbitrary date in the campaign timeline his name will still appear on the ballot as the Labour Party candidate I mean he’s on the ballot as a labor

Candidate isn’t he but he’ll be he’s on the ballot but he’ll be have the whip suspended if he wins so he won’t be a labor to so if he wins on day one he gets suspended from his own party yes that’s good great look for Rockdale that a

It that’s just what we need now the bookie’s favorite to win is George Galloway who in his own press release said he’s standing on a pro Palestine message to teach starm a lesson Galloway has campaigned on a very sectarian basis he’s appealed to a sort of a sectarian

Vote he’s gone for the Muslim vote and he’s campaigned not on rdale issues but he’s campaigned on the basis of Gaza and to a lesser extent Kashmir and he’s not shown any interest in the neighborhoods of Rochdale who he claims he wants to represent I think Galloway has operated

Like a traditional oldfashioned American tele evangelist grifting for dollars and that’s what he’s done I’ve seen a clip of Galloway on social media where he’s actually preaching outside of mosque in rdale and he’s actually said when you meet your maker on Judgment day he will

Ask you what you did for Gaza so that to me is the worst kind of sort of Victorian ham melodramatic stuff uh I’m going to vote for Simon danuk I don’t think Simon danchuk was a good candidate because he’s got a reputation for sexual impropriety but in terms of the

Candidates who are campaigning for Rochdale and labor of course are an irrelevance because they pick someone who turned out to be um an inappropriate candidate not respectable um so labor are an irrelevance in this election they they’ll win the general election they they’ll retake Rochdale but they’re an

Irrelevance here obviously so I’m going to vote for for Simon danok because he’s campaigning on rdale issues he he’s actually got a sense of what this town needs where it’s going um Galloway’s campaigning on a platform of rank sectarianism I want to appeal to the Muslim boat I think the most deis Muslim

Vote in male can be treated as a block vote uh and they’re interested in Gaza and to a lesser extent Kashmir George Galloway is extraordinarily fluenced if anybody doubts that there’s a moment when he has to go at to American senators and there is something about his power with the English language

Which is a fascinating thing to behold it’s a thing of beauty and he’s a bad man in my experience again and again and again he’s used the kind of the difficulties and complicatedness of Western liberal democracy against us to favor his own career to Fever his own nest and to

Advance those people who hate us I’m talking about dictators people like Saddam Hussein people like Vladimir Putin it’s at the moment it’s a SC of I’m a roel I’ve always been able to go on any Street in rdale but this byelection has got things feeling a little different few things sh

Like Zionist uh Cut Throat gestures stuff like that been passing cars mainly mainly the youth not the Elder it’s mainly the youth um the message they’re getting I think it’s being missed conr somewhere Galloway has come to Rochdale uh the Galloway circus has rolled into town and he’s speaking to a small vocal

Minority about Gara and he hopes that that will uh get him over the line and he can win the byelection he’s a chancer as he has been in many other constituencies but the reality is the vast majority of the silent majority in this town uh want an MP who will focus

On the real key issues that are faced in Rochdale and that’s what I’m going to concentrate on uh I think Galloway’s got it completely wrong I think he’s um he’s gone from being known as the MP for Baghdad Central when he uh was seen as ort suppor in tyrants and now he’s

Hoping to become the MP for Gaza at supporting terrorists that’s not what Rochdale wants we want an MP that’s going to put Rochdale first and that’s the ticket I’m standing on in this by elction I think Gaza is important to all of us you know nobody likes to see a

Situation where there are two Nations at conflict where the ordinary people are actually in absolute D stets and where people are living in fear of that conflict nobody wants to see that but that has overtaken this byelection because um there has been a basically a media circus has come into town that is

Circling around one person and one issue rather than tackling what really matters to local people who is that one person you know who that one person is why do you think that he’s come here to campaign on Gaza um well the same reason as he went to

Gon the same reason as he’s been to so many other seats where there is a large Muslim population um and the problem is he doesn’t improve things he just makes um a lot of noise about an issue and then wanders to the next seat I mean he’s

Done a lot heck of a lot of seats almost as many as screaming Lord such did in the 1990s he said the same thing about Iraq and didn’t do that didn’t he in Bradford he said the same thing everywhere he’s been and not delivered so no don’t think he’ll make a

Difference the simp ofis roell syis with palestin but roell has a very big issues itself that need to be dealt with in social injustice and social C too that’s a massive issue we’ve got children dying here through damp and mold in the year 2024 I think that’s a priority for

Rochdale well we’re working hard you know if people in Rochdale uh don’t want George Galloway and I and I believe the majority do not want him to be the MP for this town then the only party to beat him is reform UK I’m the person to

Beat him it’s a two or race between me and Galloway and if you want the town to be represented by somebody who’s sensible going to put Rochdale first then you would vote for me if you want somebody who’s going to put Gaza first you would vote for Galloway some in the

Constituency believe that George Galloway is capitalizing on Gaza in order to get himself elected in fact his own campaign manager James Giles even seemed to allude to this in an interview when I first heard those comments uh I didn’t first hear the retraction I heard the original comments I thought my

Goodness he’s uh trying to win back favor among the Muslim vote um who of course feel most passionately uh in Rochdale about the issue of Israel Palestine then again he goes on to he goes to Iraq now Iraq is a nightmarish problem for the whole world but Sadam

Hussein is unbelievably cruel he gasses the Kurds he gasses the Shia Muslims he tortures people he’s ferociously cruel and and the West tries to deal with him and there imposes sanctions and there’s George Galloway sir we We Salute You what he’s doing here is finding a story where if you’re

A bit thick you can see that the West is doing something which is harmful but not properly understanding why and what the West is trying to do is to address something that’s clearly wrong which was saddam’s regime and instead you just look at the the Western action without looking and

Understanding the big picture and there’s Galloway fluent as ever but siding with the Great Dictator what he’s doing now is he’s kind of weaponizing the fear and anxieties and they are perfectly reasonable of many many um um Britain who happen to be Muslim who side with the Palestinians who worry that what’s

Happening in um Israel Palestine right now is very dark indeed and he’s kind of going going for those people uh or he is seeking to be their Champion but I’ll tell you what’ll end up the only person who will be properly served will be George Galloway