Scandal-hit ex-Labour MP George Galloway WINS Rochdale by-election after chaotic contest in headache for Keir Starmer
SIR KEIR Starmer is facing another headache as scandal-hit ex-Labour MP George Galloway pulled off a dramatic political comeback by winning the Rochdale by-election.
The left-wing firebrand and former Big Brother contestant from the Workers Party of GB won 12,335 votes.
His win proves to be another headache for Starmer, with Galloway blasting the Labour leader throughout his Gaza-focused campaign.
He started his victory speech by saying: "Keir Starmer - this is for Gaza" before adding "Starmer's problems just got 100 times worse than they were before today".
Independent candidate David Anthony Tully stormed into second, with 6,638 votes.
Tory candidate Paul Simon Ellison came in third with 3,731, while disgraced ex-Labour candidate Azhar Ali came fourth with 2,402 votes. He did not appear at the count last night.
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Labour abandoned candidate Ali over inflammatory comments he made about Israel.
Reform UK candidate Simon Danczuk - who was kicked out of Labour for sexting a 17-year-old - came fifth, with 1,968 votes.
Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice slammed yesterday's by-election - which has proved to be one of the most divisive in recent years - as a "shameful contest".
He claimed Danczuk had been subject to death threats and "vile racist abuse" while on the campaign trial.
Mr Galloway last night declared an early victory hours before the results rolled in, with his campaign manager claiming the result was set to be "better than our wildest hopes".
Rochdale - who's voter turnout was a substantial 39.7% - is the fifth constituency to have Mr Galloway for its MP - which is an unusual record for modern politics.
Who stood in the Rochdale by-election?
Azhar Ali - Independent, formerly Labour
Paul Ellison – Conservative
Iain Donaldson - Liberal Democrats
Simon Danczuk - Reform UK
George Galloway - Workers Party of Britain
Reverend Mark Coleman – Independent
Michael Howarth – Independent
David Anthony Tully – Independent
William Howarth – Independent
Guy Otten - Green Party, on ballot paper but not campaigning
Ravin Rodent Subortna - Official Monster Raving Loony Party
He was previously a Labour MP, but was kicked out the party more than two decades ago over statements made on the Iraq War.
Mr Galloway based almost his entire campaign on Palestine.
He gallivanted through mosques across the constituency in an effort to seize the support of Rochdale's Muslim population.
Last night's ballot was held after veteran Sir Tony Lloyd died in January, days after announcing he had an incurable form of leukaemia.
Alleged death threats, candidates wearing stab vests and vandalism were only some of the incidents reported to have taken place during the campaigning.
Labour’s campaign was torpedoed days after a recording surfaced of Mr Ali speaking at a party meeting suggesting Israel was complicit with the massacre of its own people on October 7.
Though no longer backed by Labour, he remained a candidate as it was too late to withdraw his name from the ballot papers.
Another former Labour MP vying for the seat, Mr Danczuk, crept up the polls.
The Reform candidate, who was kicked out of Labour for sexting a 17-year-old, based his campaign on a patriotic platform of "Rochdale not Gaza".
Earlier this week a 23-year-old man was arrested after being alleged to have sent a death threat to Mr Danczuk.
The Reform candidate had to hire security guards for the last two days of campaigning.
Reform leader Mr Tice blasted: "The behaviour of certain candidates and their supporters in this contest fell very far short of this our traditional democratic standards. What we have witnessed and experienced in Rochdale is deeply disturbing.
"In recent weeks, Reform UK’s candidate and campaign team has been subjected to death threats, suffered vile racist abuse, been refused entry to hustings in a public building, had to be relocated for their own safety and suffered daily intimidation and slurs.
"In one incident, Reform UK business supporters were threatened with a firebomb attack if they distributed our leaflets.
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"Menacing behaviour was a feature of the entire campaign, including outside polling stations on the day of the election itself. In this ugliest of contests, we are also concerned by the sudden increase in the size of the postal vote, which has jumped from 14,000 to some 23,000 in this constituency since the last general election.
"The results of the Rochdale by-election should act as a stark wake up call to those in power – and the entire electorate. This is Britain. We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy. This shameful contest has been more characteristic of a failed state."
