UK: George Galloway Wins Rochdale By-Election

Facts

• Former Labour MP George Galloway has won the UK's Rochdale by-election — debates around which were dominated by events in Gaza — by a resounding margin with nearly 40% of the vote, securing nearly 6K more ballots than any other candidate.¹
• Galloway — first elected as an MP for Glasgow Hillsdale in 1987, a seat he held until 2005 — was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 over his opposition to the war in Iraq. He served as a non-Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow from 2005 to 2010 and Bradford West from 2012 to 2015.²
• After securing 12,335 votes in Rochdale, 39.7% of the total, the 69-year-old pointed his remarks at Labour's Keir Starmer, saying he will pay heavily for 'enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza.'³
• With Galloway representing the Workers Party of Britain — a party he formed in 2019 — and second place going to Dave Tully, a local business owner and independent candidate, Galloway said the by-election reflected a rejection of the country's two major parties.¹
• The by-election was triggered by the death of veteran Labour politician Sir Tony Lloyd in early January; Labour were initially expected to hold onto the seat.⁴
• However, Labour's campaign became mired in controversy after their candidate Azhar Ali made comments suggesting Israel's leadership allowed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack to happen so they could 'do whatever they bloody want' in Gaza, causing the party to cut ties with Ali.⁵

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Yahoo News, ³Guardian, ⁴Sky News and ⁵Independent.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. Galloway's landslide victory in Rochdale shows just how much British voters are turning away from the two main parties following their failure to hold Israel to account for its action in Gaza. This victory will spark a wider movement in the UK and truly shake up establishment complacency, especially in international policy.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by BBC News. Galloway is a controversial figure who stokes fear and division wherever he goes. He typically runs in predominantly Muslim areas, winning those seats by stoking anti-Israel hatred. This is a worrying turn of events for British politics, but one by-election result under exceptional circumstances is unlikely to indicate a broader rejection of the two-party system at the next general election.

Predictions