Meet the brand new MP for Rochdale: ‘Gorgeous’ George Galloway
‘Gaza George’ Galloway’s fervent supporters declare that the brand new Right Honourable Member of Parliament for Rochdale has now had extra comebacks that Muhammad Ali.
Nearly 18 years to the day since his infamous look on Celebrity Big Brother – the place he embraced Sir Jimmy Savile and embarrassed himself as he licked faux milk out of actress Rula Lenska’s hand, whereas purring – he’s again within the massive time when many had written him off.
His landslide victory in Rochdale final night time, a very horrible blow for Sir Keir Starmer, is yet one more extraordinary twist within the profession of the 69-year-old from Dundee.
Mr Galloway has received some of the tumultuous by-elections in latest instances by primarily focusing on Muslim voters and being pro-Palestine because the battle between Israel and Hamas rages on. His solely actually native insurance policies gave the impression to be to deliver again a maternity hospital and a Primark.
Rochdale is the seventh parliamentary victory for the constituency-hopping politician. In these 4 a long time he has additionally been married 4 instances and had six kids.
George Galloway, chief of the Workers Party of Britain, kisses his fourth spouse, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, as he received the Rochdale by-election final night time
From 1979 to 1999, Galloway was married to his former teenage sweetheart, Elaine Fyffe.
George Galloway together with his spouse Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad. She divorced him over his unreasonable behaviour
Galloway together with his third spouse Rima Hussein – who slammed his morals after they cut up
His Celebrity Big Brother look grew to become greatest identified for the weird second he mimicked licking imaginary milk from Rula Lenska’s cupped fingers as he pretended to be a cat
Sir Jimmy Savile on CBB greets George Galloway, who additionally wore a leotard on the present
George Galloway fingers Saddam Hussein a pennant from Palestinian youths in 1993 – he denied praising the dictator, claiming his phrases had been concerning the Iraqi individuals
George Galloway attending the nationwide anti-war demonstration in 2003 – the 12 months he was thrown out of Labour
Galloway’s political profession has been extraordinary and tumultuous – identical to his love life.
From 1979 to 1999, Galloway was married to his former teenage sweetheart, Elaine Fyffe.
They had a daughter, Lucy. The couple separated in 1987 however didn’t divorce for an additional 12 years.
The politician had already taken Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, a Palestinian scientist, as a second spouse in a Muslim ceremony in 1994.
A 12 months after his divorce from Elaine in 1999, he married Dr Abu-Zayyad in a civil ceremony.
In 2009 Dr Abu-Zayyad obtained an uncontested divorce citing unreasonable behaviour. In divorce papers she stated the wedding had irretrievably damaged down as a result of his friendships with different ladies left her depressed.
By this time Galloway already had a son, Zein, together with his Lebanese former researcher, Rima Husseini, whom he had married in a Muslim ceremony in 2005.
And in 2012 he married anthropologist Putri Gayatri Pertiwi – 30 years his junior – in Amsterdam.
The ceremony, in a resort, occurred lower than 48 hours after the MP took the Labour stronghold of Bradford West with an astonishing 10,000-plus majority for his Respect social gathering.
The fourth Mrs Galloway is a Dutch-born researcher of Indonesian extraction who took a level in cultural anthropology on the University of Utrecht. She additionally studied in Amsterdam earlier than taking a masters diploma in kids’s rights at Amsterdam University.
The couple stay married and she or he was at his aspect in Rochdale as he received final night time.
A king of selecting sides, typically with nice controversy, he’s a extra more likely to again President Putin‘s Russia and the Ayatollahs’ Iran than these main Britain. When Sergei Skripal was poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury, Galloway went on TV to say Russia ought to on the ‘backside of the record’ of suspects.
He has been Labour, Independent Labour, Respect and now the Workers Party of Britain, whose marketing campaign literature boasted that the fedora-hatted firebrand was a pal to Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Yasser Arafat.
Galloway appalled many together with his go to to Iraq‘s murderous dictator Saddam Hussein within the Nineteen Nineties when he praised the despot for his braveness, power and indefatigability – though he at all times insisted his feedback had been addressed to the Iraqi individuals.
And whereas Hussein and the remainder of his comrades at the moment are lifeless, Galloway may be very a lot alive – and kicking. One supporter stated in the present day that after stints on Iranian and Russian-backed TV and no seat in Parliament since Bradford West 9 years once more: ‘George is necessary once more’.
Mr Galloway, who put a hardline pro-Palestinian stance on the coronary heart of his marketing campaign, has ended his nine-year absence from the House of Commons
The 69-year-old put his pro-Palestinian stance on the coronary heart of his marketing campaign to be elected within the Greater Manchester constituency
George Galloway is the firebrand politician beforehand often known as ‘Gorgeous George’ however who grew to become ‘ Gaza George’ as he efficiently received over Rochdale voters
He grew to become the youngest ever chairman of the Scottish Labour Party in 1981 earlier than being expelled from Labour in 2003 over his feedback on the Iraq War.
Since then he has popped up at elections and by-elections to present his former social gathering a bloody nostril.
And final night time he did it once more, profitable 12,335 votes within the Rochdale by-election, which was just below 40 per cent of the vote share. This put him forward of second-placed unbiased candidate David Tully who received 6,638 votes (21 per cent).
Azhar Ali, the previous Labour candidate who was ditched by the social gathering following an ‘anti-Semitism’ storm, was fourth with simply 2,402 votes (7.72 per cent).
His political allegiance could have modified quite a few instances over time, however Mr Galloway has remained trustworthy to his trademark fedora hat – lengthy a function of British politics.
Born in a working class neighbourhood of Dundee – which he later tried to twin with the Palestinian city of Nablus – Galloway’s first job was in a tyre manufacturing unit.
A fiery orator within the traditional mould, Galloway was chairman of the Scottish Labour Party by the age of 26 and elected to Parliament in 1987, beating the SDP’s Roy Jenkins to win the Glasgow Hillhead seat, six years later. Soon afterwards he earned his ‘Gorgeous’ nickname following a convention in Greece.
In reply to a query about his behaviour, he stated: ‘I travelled and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women, some of whom were known carnally to me. I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece.’
That sexist bombast earned him a vote of no-confidence from his shocked native social gathering. But he survived, as did his popularity as a swordsman.
He had joined Labour’s Young Socialists on the age of 13 and was nonetheless an adolescent when he grew to become secretary of the Dundee Labour Party.
Much of his vitality within the final 20 years has been targeted on Middle Eastern affairs.
In 1994, he courted controversy when was filmed apparently telling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein: ‘Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.’
Galloway claimed he had been misinterpreted.
Meanwhile, his typically fraught relationship with the Labour Party lastly resulted in October 2003 when he was expelled for feedback which allegedly ‘incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops’.
Galloway dismissed the act as a ‘politically motivated kangaroo court’.
Standing for the anti-war Respect Party, he then pulled off some of the extraordinary outcomes of the 2005, or every other latest common election, by beating the much-favoured Labour Party incumbent, Oona King, in Bethnal Green and Bow.
King described it as ‘one of the dirtiest campaigns we have ever seen in British politics.’ Shortly afterwards Galloway went to Washington to present a bravura efficiency in entrance of a U.S. Senate Committee, which had accused him of profiteering in Iraq. He stated the allegation was the ‘mother of all smokescreens.’
Typically, Galloway then virtually instantly blotted his copybook so far as a lot of his conservative Muslim constituents had been involved, by collaborating in Channel Four’s Celebrity Big Brother.
The low level got here when he wearing a leotard and pretended to be a cat licking milk from the fingers of Big Brother house-mate, actress Rula Lenska.
After combating and dropping the newly-created Poplar and Limehouse seat within the 2010 common election, Galloway focused on his intensive media work.
But then received in Bradford West in 2012.
George Galloway, together with his first spouse Elaine, after defeating Roy Jenkins at Glasgow Hillhead within the General Election in 1987
Galloway was was chairman of the Scottish Labour Party by the age of 26
George Galloway chases down former Labour MP Ivan Henderson throughout a Parliamentary England vs Scotland match
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz (proper) with left-wing British member of parliament George Galloway
Mr Galloway, pictured at an anti-war protest in 2004, was booted out of Labour amid his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
At the 2005 common election, Mr Galloway shocked his previous social gathering by taking the protected Labour seat of Bethnal Green and Bow in east London for his new Respect Party
In 2006, Mr Galloway signed as much as actuality TV present Celebrity Big Brother
Mr Galloway made a surprising return to the Commons at a 2012 by-election in Bradford West when he trounced Labour
In 2021, at a by-election in Batley and Spen, Mr Galloway misplaced as a candidate for his new Workers Party of Britain
He claimed it was ‘essentially the most sensational victory in British political historical past’ following a marketing campaign wherein appeared to have efficiently received the help of the seat’s Muslim group.
Labour’s woes in Bradford West didn’t final as they re-took the seat on the 2015 common election, with Mr Galloway defeated in his re-election bid by greater than 11,000 votes.
In his years away from Westminster, Mr Galloway campaigned for Brexit as a part of the Grassroots Out marketing campaign earlier than the EU referendum in 2016.
That was the identical 12 months he stood for election as London mayor, however he secured simply 1.4 per cent of help from the capital’s voters.
Mr Galloway tried to return to the Commons at each the 2017 and 2019 common elections, however misplaced as an unbiased candidate in each Manchester Gorton and West Bromich East, respectively.
In 2021, at a by-election in Batley and Spen mired in claims of intimidation and homophobia, Mr Galloway misplaced once more as a candidate for his new Workers Party of Britain.
Alongside his many election campaigns, Mr Galloway – a father-of-six who has been married 4 instances – has additionally been a TV and radio presenter.
This has included his controversial internet hosting of reveals on Iranian state-owned Press TV and the now-banned Russia Today.
Mr Galloway was interrogated by a US Senate committee in 2005 in reference to claims he had profited improperly from buying and selling in Iraqi oil, claims he denied in a fiery Senate listening to.
He was later accused by the identical committee of mendacity underneath oath, which he once more denied.
During his by-election marketing campaign in Rochdale, Mr Galloway targeted closely on the Palestinian trigger and Gaza amid the present disaster within the Middle East.
He was unrepentant concerning the chants of ‘From the River to the Sea’ at his marketing campaign rallies within the city, a phrase considered anti-Semitic by some
‘But I do not regard it as anti-Semitic,’ he stated. ‘I do not, so I can say it. This is a free nation.
‘I’m in favour of a democratic state for Jews, Muslims and Christians between the river and the ocean. You could not like that, others could not like that. But that is what I imagine, and we’ll see if individuals vote for it.
‘I’m involved concerning the blood and flesh that is being torn aside in Gaza. The emotions somebody may need in England about me utilizing the phrases, ‘River to the ocean’ are of a lot much less significance than that.’
Mr Galloway claimed to have negotiated with the proprietor of a purchasing centre within the city to deliver Primark to Rochdale and pledged to get maternity service re-opened in Rochdale, points, ‘nothing to do with Gaza,’ he stated.
He additionally requested about alleged previous help for Bashar Al-Assad, dictator of Syria, and it was put to him accusations of his alleged apologism for others with dire human rights information.
He stated: ‘Right now, not in Syria, however proper now, in Gaza, this minute, kids are being killed.
‘That’s whataboutery, I’m not going into that. You might say to me, ‘What concerning the Congo? What about Ulan Bator?’ You are diverting consideration from an precise genocide, occurring proper now.
‘I reject that. And its whataboutery so I’m not going any additional down that street.’
