George Galloway wins big in Rochdale

George Galloway, who called the Soviet collapse a catastrophe and has "glorified" Hezbollah, overturned a Labour majority of nearly 10,000 to win the Rochdale by-election in northern England last night. It was a win "for all Rochdalians," he said, and they will find out soon enough if he means it. What was clear at once was that his unequivocal (and longstanding) support for the Palestinian cause in a constituency with a large Muslim minority paid off handsomely. "This is for Gaza," he said after the former Labour's candidate came fourth, running as an independent after being abandoned by the party for what were widely considered anti-semitic remarks during the campaign. Galloway told the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, he would "pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza, in the Gaza Strip". He claimed in a 2004 court case to have decided to devote his life to "the Palestinian and Arab cause" after a visit to Lebanon in the 1970s, and has subsequently forged ties with Saddam Hussein, Hussein's son Uday and a succession of Palestinian and Hamas leaders. Heckled at the vote count as a "terrorist sympathiser" and climate change denier, he promised to try to save the town's troubled football club and improve emergency and maternal healthcare at its hospital. Few doubt he sees his real role as a thorn in Starmer's side in the next few months as Labour carries the "ming vase" of a 20-point poll lead over the Conservatives towards an historic general election.