Labour MP warns George Galloway will bring ‘circus’ to Westminster

George Galloway will bring a circus to Westminster after being elected following heavy campaigning on the issue of a ceasefire in Gaza, a Labour MP has warned.

Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray claimed the firebrand politician will use his victory in the Rochdale by-election as a platform for his own interests rather than helping local people.

Galloway, leader of The Workers Party of Great Britain and a former Labour MP, won with 12,335 votes – more than 5,000 votes over second placed independent David Tully – after focusing much of his campaign on the plight of Palestinians.

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak described the result as “beyond alarming” as he warned UK democracy is being targeted during the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

But Galloway hit back at Sunak, saying the Conservatives were “crushed” during the vote and he is now the one with a democratic mandate.

Murray told The Sunday Post that he does not expect to engage with the Workers Party MP and claimed he offers nothing to Parliament.

Murray said: “The problem is that he’s supposed to be a Member of Parliament for Rochdale. He’s as much a member as every other MP and he’s got a job to do.

“I suspect he’s not going to do that job and will just use the platform for his own interests. That is the real disappointment about the election result.

“He will make a circus of himself. He did it before when he won in Bethnal Green, and in Bradford.

“He’ll come in with a big circus. Everyone will want to talk to him because he’s a story.

“But beyond what he said in the campaign about Gaza he has absolutely nothing to offer – and even less to offer the people of Rochdale.”

Fear and division

Labour warned Galloway will stoke “fear and division” and claimed he only won because it dropped candidate Azhar Ali for suggesting Israel was complicit in Hamas’ October 7 attack.

Galloway used his victory speech to take aim at leader Sir Keir Starmer.

He told Starmer: “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 the Gaza Strip.”

Asked whether there is a risk Starmer’s position on Gaza could cost Labour votes at the next General Election, Murray said: “I think there’s a risk of overblowing all this stuff.

“We passed a motion against all odds a week ago calling for a ceasefire, which is what people were asking for and demanding.

“It’s a foreign policy issue over which the UK as a whole has very little impact – and an opposition party has even less.

“I think going into the election, the cost of living and the economy will be at the forefront.”

Democratic mandate

Asked about Sunak’s criticism of his campaign, Galloway told Sky News: “We’re talking about little Rishi Sunak in the fag-end of his prime ministership.

“Don’t talk to me as if he’s come down from the mount with tablets of stone, that the things he says are somehow meant to awe me … I’ve got the democratic mandate here, he didn’t even second, he didn’t even come third.”

Galloway hung up the phone after being approached for comment by The Sunday Post and did not respond to further attempts to make contact.