FancyMancy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2017
- Messages
- 6,741
Contents
Manchester Evening News
Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
George Galloway has issued a warning to Greater Manchester MPs on his first day back in Parliament as Rochdale's representative. The Workers Party of Britain leader spoke to reporters outside Parliament after he was sworn in as the town's MP on Monday (4th March). The former Labour MP, who has represented four different places throughout his political career, received nearly 40 per cent of the vote and took the seat with a majority of 5,697 after the Rochdale by-election last Thursday (29th February). After taking his seat in the House of Commons, Mr Galloway said he wants to 'make Rochdale great again' before setting out plans to take on Labour elsewhere.
The 69-year-old said that his party will field candidates or support independents to stand in Oldham, Bury and Ashton-under-Lyne, which Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner represents. Ms Rayner won the seat with a majority of 4,263 at the 2019 general election.
READ MORE: What now for Rochdale?
He said, "Angela Rayner has a Parliamentary majority, I think, of around 3,000. There's at least 15,000 supporters of my point of view in her constituency. So we'll be putting a candidate up against here. Either a Workers' Party candidate or more likely an independent candidate that we support, and that will vitally affect the election of the Labour deputy leader, and there are many constituencies in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green in the heart of the city of London, in Birmingham, in other parts of the West Midlands, in North West England, in the towns around Rochdale - Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley, Nelson, Bury. We'll be putting candidates up in all these places."
Mr Galloway also attacked Rishi Sunak after the Prime Minister said his victory in Rochdale was 'beyond alarming', saying it was 'not for the unelected Prime Minister' to pick who represents the constituency in Parliament. Echoing former US President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s 'make America great again' slogan, he said, “It’s my job to try to make Rochdale great again.”. He added that the next election would be about 'Muslims' and 'the taking away of civil liberties in this country'.
Around 12 per cent of residents in Greater Manchester identified as Muslim at the last census in 2021 when slightly less than a quarter of residents in Oldham said they were Muslim. In his victory speech last week, Mr Galloway - who put Gaza front and centre of his by-election campaign - said 'every Muslim is bitterly angry' at the Labour Party over its stance on the war, but 'millions' of others are, too.
Last month, UK Parliament passed a Labour motion calling for an 'immediate humanitarian ceasefire' in the region and the release of Israeli hostages. It came after chaotic scenes as the three biggest political parties fought over the wording that was put to a vote.
https://archive.is/XCFoU
Times of Israel
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway makes a statement to members of the media outside of the Houses of Parliament in London on 4th March 2024, after his swearing-in ceremony. (Adrian DENNIS/AFP)
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway was sworn in at the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday, after being elected to the UK parliament on 1st March in a chaotic by-election marred by allegations of antisemitism. Speaking following the swearing-in, Galloway made several remarks about the Israel-Hamas war and compared Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazis’ actions during the Holocaust.
“If the by-election had been in February of 1940 or 41, would anyone seriously have condemned me for putting the crimes of the Holocaust at the centre of my election campaign?” he asked reporters present. Drawing comparisons between modern Israeli policy and World War II-era Nazi policy is a form of explicit antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Galloway, leader of the fringe Workers' Party of Great Britain, which has long been accused by critics of stoking community tensions, put the Gaza conflict front and centre of his campaign in Rochdale, which has a 30 percent Muslim population.
Asked by BBC reporters on Monday if he believes Hamas should be allowed to govern Gaza, Galloway took issue with the question, saying it was “dripping with imperial condescension”. He said that the United Kingdom should not decide the government of Gaza — the Palestinians should.
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway makes a statement to members of the media outside of the Houses of Parliament in London on 4th March, 2024, after his swearing-in ceremony. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS/AFP)
“I myself would not have voted for Hamas”, he said, “but the Palestinian people picked Hamas, and as I said [during the 2008 Gaza war], no good can come of… former colonising countries trying to pick the leaders of other people’s lands.” Galloway, 69, first became an MP in 1987 and has returned to the House of Commons for the first time since 2015 after winning the seat of Rochdale, in northwest England, by nearly 6,000 votes.
He ran in a turbulent by-election, triggered by the death of veteran Labour MP Tony Lloyd, which saw the main opposition Labour Party withdraw its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he touted an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Ali claimed that Israel had allowed Hamas to carry out its deadly attack on 7th October when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and taking an additional 253 hostage. A Labour spokesperson said of Galloway’s win, “We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this by-election and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.”
In a speech on Saturday warning that extremists, including Islamist elements, were a threat to British democracy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also condemned the election of Galloway. Sunak said it was “beyond alarming” that voters had elected a candidate “who dismisses the horror of what happened on 7th October, and who glorifies Hezbollah.”
Jewish groups have also condemned his election. A spokesperson for the organisation Campaign Against Antisemitism said Galloway has “an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community. Given his historic inflammatory rhetoric and the current situation faced by the Jewish community in this country, we are extremely concerned by how he may use the platform of the House of Commons in the remaining months of this parliament.”.
The Scottish-born Galloway has had a long and checkered political career in which he has represented several parties, including Labour. He sparked controversy in the 1990s when he visited then-Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, telling him, “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.”.
Galloway gained international notoriety in 2005 when he was called to testify over Iraq in the US Senate. He had earlier been expelled from Labour over his stance on the war.
https://archive.is/LCxr9
MSN
George Galloway's hopes of recruiting Jeremy Corbyn to his party have been dashed after sources close to the former Labour leader dismissed the idea he would join forces with the newly-elected MP for Rochdale.
George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn. File pics: PA ©PA
Upon entering parliament last week following his controversial victory in the Rochdale by-election, Mr Galloway appealed to Mr Corbyn to "launch and lead" a new alliance of socialists and questioned why he had "procrastinated for so long" about his political future, but sources close to Mr Corbyn - who remains suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party - have told Sky News Mr Galloway and Mr Corbyn working together was "never going to happen".
A former aide told Sky News, "Galloway wants Jeremy to be the leader of some new great movement, but I don't think Jeremy would do that. He doesn't need Galloway's baggage. George and Jeremy may have spoken at the same rallies during the Iraq war, but they have not ever been close comrades. George Galloway is a lone wolf - it's how he operates."
Another source branded the idea Mr Corbyn could join Mr Galloway's Workers Party as a "complete non-starter". "They may agree over Gaza but they have totally different politics. It wouldn't be in Jeremy's interests."
A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn declined to comment. Mr Galloway has been approached for comment.
Mr Galloway, a former Labour MP who was expelled from the party in 2003, won the Rochdale by-election last week on a pro-Gaza platform that earned him a majority of 5,697 votes. By contrast, Labour - which had previously held the seat under the late Sir Tony Lloyd - came fourth with just 2,402 votes after the party was forced to abandon support for its candidate following an antisemitism row.
Mr Galloway has been strongly critical of Sir Keir Starmer's position on the conflict, accusing him in his victory speech of "enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip".
Read more:
Sir Keir Starmer should be very, very worried after Galloway win
Who is George Galloway, the new MP for Rochdale?
He claimed his election was going to "spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies". Shortly before he was sworn in as an MP in the Commons, Mr Galloway urged Mr Corbyn to make a "final total break with Labour" in an interview with the left-leaning YouTube channel Not the Andrew Marr Show. He admitted he had not spoken with Mr Corbyn in "many years" and said he did not know why "he has procrastinated so long in making a final total break with Labour and leading something himself.". "If he was here now, I would say to him, 'You saw what happened [in Rochdale]. Set up, announce an alliance of the remaining socialists in the country. You lead it, I'll support it, you'll be the leader, and let's go. Time is running out.'"
He added, "He must avoid being a wasting asset. He is a very considerable asset and everyone loves him, but he should be careful that he doesn't waste the remaining opportunity that he has. If he won't, we will run ourselves - we'll support independence where we don't run ourselves, and we'll do that, but we will be weaker because of the absence of Jeremy Corbyn at the head of it.".
Mr Corbyn sits as an independent MP in the Commons after he was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party over his reaction to a damning report into how antisemitism complaints were handled under his leadership. Sir Keir has been adamant there is no route back for Mr Corbyn into the parliamentary party and that he will not be able to stand for Labour at the next election - increasing the likelihood he will stand as an independent in his constituency of Islington North, a seat he has held since 1983.
One Labour MP said they believed Mr Galloway had "ulterior motives" in asking Mr Corbyn to join his party - something they said the latter would be "stupid to do". "He's set Corbyn a challenge he knows he won't be able to step up to", they explained. "He's trying to make Jeremy an offer he can't refuse and if he doesn't take up that offer, I think Galloway will make out that Corbyn is the problem. Galloway wants to be the big boy of the left, he wants Jeremy's 2.5m followers on social media. He wants to be the kingmaker of the left - but Galloway is for Galloway and nothing else."
https://archive.is/jViWE
Comments were not "allowed" on this article.
At this point, I don't know if I will post much more news about this. There are a couple of videos (at least for now) that I intend to post.
See also -
My Conversation with an AI chatbot - MP George Galloway, plus
- George Galloway issues warning to Greater Manchester MPs on first day back in Parliament
- Newly elected British MP Galloway equates Israel-Hamas war to Holocaust
- 'Complete non-starter': Corbyn allies snub Galloway's plea for political pact with ex-Labour leader
Manchester Evening News
George Galloway issues warning to Greater Manchester MPs on first day back in Parliament
5/Mar/2024
Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
George Galloway has issued a warning to Greater Manchester MPs on his first day back in Parliament as Rochdale's representative. The Workers Party of Britain leader spoke to reporters outside Parliament after he was sworn in as the town's MP on Monday (4th March). The former Labour MP, who has represented four different places throughout his political career, received nearly 40 per cent of the vote and took the seat with a majority of 5,697 after the Rochdale by-election last Thursday (29th February). After taking his seat in the House of Commons, Mr Galloway said he wants to 'make Rochdale great again' before setting out plans to take on Labour elsewhere.
The 69-year-old said that his party will field candidates or support independents to stand in Oldham, Bury and Ashton-under-Lyne, which Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner represents. Ms Rayner won the seat with a majority of 4,263 at the 2019 general election.
READ MORE: What now for Rochdale?
He said, "Angela Rayner has a Parliamentary majority, I think, of around 3,000. There's at least 15,000 supporters of my point of view in her constituency. So we'll be putting a candidate up against here. Either a Workers' Party candidate or more likely an independent candidate that we support, and that will vitally affect the election of the Labour deputy leader, and there are many constituencies in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green in the heart of the city of London, in Birmingham, in other parts of the West Midlands, in North West England, in the towns around Rochdale - Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley, Nelson, Bury. We'll be putting candidates up in all these places."
Mr Galloway also attacked Rishi Sunak after the Prime Minister said his victory in Rochdale was 'beyond alarming', saying it was 'not for the unelected Prime Minister' to pick who represents the constituency in Parliament. Echoing former US President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s 'make America great again' slogan, he said, “It’s my job to try to make Rochdale great again.”. He added that the next election would be about 'Muslims' and 'the taking away of civil liberties in this country'.
Around 12 per cent of residents in Greater Manchester identified as Muslim at the last census in 2021 when slightly less than a quarter of residents in Oldham said they were Muslim. In his victory speech last week, Mr Galloway - who put Gaza front and centre of his by-election campaign - said 'every Muslim is bitterly angry' at the Labour Party over its stance on the war, but 'millions' of others are, too.
Last month, UK Parliament passed a Labour motion calling for an 'immediate humanitarian ceasefire' in the region and the release of Israeli hostages. It came after chaotic scenes as the three biggest political parties fought over the wording that was put to a vote.
https://archive.is/XCFoU
Times of Israel
Newly elected British MP Galloway equates Israel-Hamas war to Holocaust
5/Mar/2024
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway makes a statement to members of the media outside of the Houses of Parliament in London on 4th March 2024, after his swearing-in ceremony. (Adrian DENNIS/AFP)
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway was sworn in at the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday, after being elected to the UK parliament on 1st March in a chaotic by-election marred by allegations of antisemitism. Speaking following the swearing-in, Galloway made several remarks about the Israel-Hamas war and compared Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazis’ actions during the Holocaust.
“If the by-election had been in February of 1940 or 41, would anyone seriously have condemned me for putting the crimes of the Holocaust at the centre of my election campaign?” he asked reporters present. Drawing comparisons between modern Israeli policy and World War II-era Nazi policy is a form of explicit antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Galloway, leader of the fringe Workers' Party of Great Britain, which has long been accused by critics of stoking community tensions, put the Gaza conflict front and centre of his campaign in Rochdale, which has a 30 percent Muslim population.
Asked by BBC reporters on Monday if he believes Hamas should be allowed to govern Gaza, Galloway took issue with the question, saying it was “dripping with imperial condescension”. He said that the United Kingdom should not decide the government of Gaza — the Palestinians should.
Newly elected Rochdale MP George Galloway makes a statement to members of the media outside of the Houses of Parliament in London on 4th March, 2024, after his swearing-in ceremony. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS/AFP)
“I myself would not have voted for Hamas”, he said, “but the Palestinian people picked Hamas, and as I said [during the 2008 Gaza war], no good can come of… former colonising countries trying to pick the leaders of other people’s lands.” Galloway, 69, first became an MP in 1987 and has returned to the House of Commons for the first time since 2015 after winning the seat of Rochdale, in northwest England, by nearly 6,000 votes.
He ran in a turbulent by-election, triggered by the death of veteran Labour MP Tony Lloyd, which saw the main opposition Labour Party withdraw its candidate, Azhar Ali, after he touted an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Ali claimed that Israel had allowed Hamas to carry out its deadly attack on 7th October when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and taking an additional 253 hostage. A Labour spokesperson said of Galloway’s win, “We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this by-election and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.”
In a speech on Saturday warning that extremists, including Islamist elements, were a threat to British democracy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also condemned the election of Galloway. Sunak said it was “beyond alarming” that voters had elected a candidate “who dismisses the horror of what happened on 7th October, and who glorifies Hezbollah.”
Jewish groups have also condemned his election. A spokesperson for the organisation Campaign Against Antisemitism said Galloway has “an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community. Given his historic inflammatory rhetoric and the current situation faced by the Jewish community in this country, we are extremely concerned by how he may use the platform of the House of Commons in the remaining months of this parliament.”.
The Scottish-born Galloway has had a long and checkered political career in which he has represented several parties, including Labour. He sparked controversy in the 1990s when he visited then-Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, telling him, “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.”.
Galloway gained international notoriety in 2005 when he was called to testify over Iraq in the US Senate. He had earlier been expelled from Labour over his stance on the war.
https://archive.is/LCxr9
MSN
'Complete non-starter': Corbyn allies snub Galloway's plea for political pact with ex-Labour leader
6/Mar/2024George Galloway's hopes of recruiting Jeremy Corbyn to his party have been dashed after sources close to the former Labour leader dismissed the idea he would join forces with the newly-elected MP for Rochdale.
George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn. File pics: PA ©PA
Upon entering parliament last week following his controversial victory in the Rochdale by-election, Mr Galloway appealed to Mr Corbyn to "launch and lead" a new alliance of socialists and questioned why he had "procrastinated for so long" about his political future, but sources close to Mr Corbyn - who remains suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party - have told Sky News Mr Galloway and Mr Corbyn working together was "never going to happen".
A former aide told Sky News, "Galloway wants Jeremy to be the leader of some new great movement, but I don't think Jeremy would do that. He doesn't need Galloway's baggage. George and Jeremy may have spoken at the same rallies during the Iraq war, but they have not ever been close comrades. George Galloway is a lone wolf - it's how he operates."
Another source branded the idea Mr Corbyn could join Mr Galloway's Workers Party as a "complete non-starter". "They may agree over Gaza but they have totally different politics. It wouldn't be in Jeremy's interests."
A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn declined to comment. Mr Galloway has been approached for comment.
Mr Galloway, a former Labour MP who was expelled from the party in 2003, won the Rochdale by-election last week on a pro-Gaza platform that earned him a majority of 5,697 votes. By contrast, Labour - which had previously held the seat under the late Sir Tony Lloyd - came fourth with just 2,402 votes after the party was forced to abandon support for its candidate following an antisemitism row.
Mr Galloway has been strongly critical of Sir Keir Starmer's position on the conflict, accusing him in his victory speech of "enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip".
Read more:
Sir Keir Starmer should be very, very worried after Galloway win
Who is George Galloway, the new MP for Rochdale?
He claimed his election was going to "spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies". Shortly before he was sworn in as an MP in the Commons, Mr Galloway urged Mr Corbyn to make a "final total break with Labour" in an interview with the left-leaning YouTube channel Not the Andrew Marr Show. He admitted he had not spoken with Mr Corbyn in "many years" and said he did not know why "he has procrastinated so long in making a final total break with Labour and leading something himself.". "If he was here now, I would say to him, 'You saw what happened [in Rochdale]. Set up, announce an alliance of the remaining socialists in the country. You lead it, I'll support it, you'll be the leader, and let's go. Time is running out.'"
He added, "He must avoid being a wasting asset. He is a very considerable asset and everyone loves him, but he should be careful that he doesn't waste the remaining opportunity that he has. If he won't, we will run ourselves - we'll support independence where we don't run ourselves, and we'll do that, but we will be weaker because of the absence of Jeremy Corbyn at the head of it.".
Mr Corbyn sits as an independent MP in the Commons after he was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party over his reaction to a damning report into how antisemitism complaints were handled under his leadership. Sir Keir has been adamant there is no route back for Mr Corbyn into the parliamentary party and that he will not be able to stand for Labour at the next election - increasing the likelihood he will stand as an independent in his constituency of Islington North, a seat he has held since 1983.
One Labour MP said they believed Mr Galloway had "ulterior motives" in asking Mr Corbyn to join his party - something they said the latter would be "stupid to do". "He's set Corbyn a challenge he knows he won't be able to step up to", they explained. "He's trying to make Jeremy an offer he can't refuse and if he doesn't take up that offer, I think Galloway will make out that Corbyn is the problem. Galloway wants to be the big boy of the left, he wants Jeremy's 2.5m followers on social media. He wants to be the kingmaker of the left - but Galloway is for Galloway and nothing else."
https://archive.is/jViWE
Comments were not "allowed" on this article.
At this point, I don't know if I will post much more news about this. There are a couple of videos (at least for now) that I intend to post.
See also -
My Conversation with an AI chatbot - MP George Galloway, plus
