George Galloway wins Rochdale seat by 12,335 votes after running on pro-Palestine campaign.

A left-wing United Kingdom politician has registered a landslide win in a parliamentary by-election on a platform promising to advocate for Gaza.

George Galloway won the seat in the northern English town of Rochdale after a fractious campaign, which saw the Labour Party withdraw support from its candidate over his anti-Israel comments.

Galloway won 12,335 votes compared with 6,638 for second-placed David Tully, an independent candidate. The former Labour candidate, Azhar Ali, came fourth after the opposition party pulled its support after he was recorded espousing conspiracy theories about Israel. Turnout was low at 39.7 percent.

“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Galloway said on Friday, referring to the Labour leader who initially refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza where more than 30,000 people have been killed in the past five months of Israeli bombardment.

Late on Friday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who supports Israel’s war, said the election of Galloway to a parliamentary seat was “beyond alarming” and accused him of dismissing Hamas’s October 7 attack.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
        111·
        9 months ago

        I’ve seen the people who claim to support anti-imperialism supporting Russian and Chinese territorial ambitions.

        It’s like when Americans talk about being for freedom. Do you take them on their word on that or look at what they are actually supporting?

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          16·
          9 months ago

          The second of course. So did you take a look at what George Galloway’s positions are on that?

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
            31·
            9 months ago

            No, I commented based on the above reply, if that wasn’t immediately clear.

            • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              16·
              9 months ago

              My understanding of your comment is that you implied that Galloway is “supporting Russian and Chinese territorial ambitions.” As the above user called it a “tankie party”.

              Did I not understand that correctly?

              • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
                4·
                9 months ago

                I said it sounds like a tankie party based on the description from the OP of this chain. Then you (as I understand it) said it couldn’t be because it is anti-imperialist and I replied how it sometimes it’s a term tankies use without actually meaning it.

                • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                  14·
                  9 months ago

                  I said that anti-imperialism does not equate being a Tankie. Which seems to be the new favorite slander word for liberals to paint anyone who is critical of American imperialism for.

                  • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
                    31·
                    9 months ago

                    I feel like you’re using “anti-imperialism” to describe what most would call a “tankie”. Which would mean we are in agreement but we just use the terms differently or disagree about their meaning.