Left-wing politician and former Labor MP George Galloway, who is vocal against Israel's aggression in Gaza, won a big victory in the Rochdale by-election in the south-western part of Britain.
Sir Tony Lloyd, a Labor MP for Rochdale, died recently. A by-election was held in the seat last Thursday (February 29) to fill in the seat.
The leader of the Workers' Party of Britain defeated the independent candidate David Tully by a large margin in the election. Galway received 12,335 votes in the election.
David Tully came second with 6,638 votes. On the other hand, the candidate who lost the support of the Labor Party, Azhar Ali, came third.
Through this victory, Galloway brought the Workers' Party of Britain to Parliament for the first time. Galway pledged to continue speaking out for Gaza during the election campaign.
He talked first about Gaza in his victory speech. He vowed to be vocal about Gaza. He said, "This victory is for Gaza."
Galloway criticized the ruling Conservative and opposition Labor party for supporting the Israeli occupation of Gaza. In his speech he said, "The Labor Party realizes it has lost the trust of millions of voters by supporting Israel. But these voters have loyally voted for them year after year.''
Addressing Labour's Kier Starmer, the leader said, "In occupied Gaza, you will pay a heavy price for the role you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering up the ongoing catastrophe in the Gaza Strip."
Labor leader Kier Starmer has a one-eyed approach to Israel. He even speaks more for Israel than the conservative government in some cases.
Galloway was elected Member of Parliament for the seventh time, overtaking the Labor Party. At one time he was in this group. He was expelled from the party for criticizing Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war.
The Rochdale by-election is another surprise in British politics. Labor usually wins this seat. A large population here in terms of numbers is of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. Muslims have a large base here. Naturally, victory or defeat in this seat depends a lot on this population.
Elected councilor for Lancashire Council, Azhar Ali, was nominated by the Labor Party after the death of Tony Lloyd. With a career in Labor politics, he is largely a popular candidate as a minority representative.
But the Labor Party suddenly withdrew its support over a comment last week. However, there was a touch of reality in his comments about Gaza. He said that Israel deliberately allowed the Hamas attack on October 7.
As an argument, he said, Egypt had warned them 10 days before, and even the United States a day before, that such an attack could happen. But they did nothing. That is, this attack is just a kind of plot to create the next situation. The Labor Party did not take this comment of Azhar Ali naturally and easily.
After these comments, the Labor Party withdrew its support from the nominated candidate Azhar Ali from this parliamentary seat known as the party's 'safe seat'. It was initially thought that he might not be in the election field after losing the support of the party. But in the end did not stand back.
Even if the Labor party rejected Azhar Ali, he might have won the election. But Britain's much talked about politician George Galloway made a mistake there.
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