GEORGE GALLOWAY is now odds-on favourite to be the next MP for Rochdale as Labour’s candidate in the pending by-election was belatedly disowned by the party.
Councillor Azhar Ali will still be on the ballot paper as Labour since nominations have closed, but he was officially dropped by the Starmer leadership after the revelation of a string of conspiracist and anti-semitic remarks secretly recorded.
This appears to clear a path to victory for Mr Galloway in an increasingly farcical by-election campaign.
He has focused heavily on ending the genocide in Gaza and has mobilised Rochdale’s Muslim voters — around one third of the electorate — in that cause.
Labour had fought to save Mr Ali’s candidacy in a display of double standards, since leftwingers are regularly purged for less or nothing, but it proved impossible in the face of a steady drip of negative stories.
Sir Keir today tried to claim that he had taken “decisive action” but could not conceal the fact that it was around 24 hours too late.
The mishandling of the issue poses a fresh crisis for the flip-flopping leader.
Martin Forde KC, whose inquiry into Labour factionalism highlighted the danger of the party operating a “hierarchy of racism,” told the BBC that there was a perception of discrimination against the left in its disciplinary procedures.
Several left MPs remain suspended for months on confected charges, among them Andy McDonald who merely expressed the hope that all people “between the river and the sea” could live together in peace.
Labour “need to give reassurance to the voting public and to their members that people will be treated fairly,” Mr Forde said.
And a spokesman for campaign group Momentum said: “It’s clear that they were trying to save one of their own.
“And it’s equally clear that Labour’s whip and selection processes are neither independent nor fair. The Labour leadership is sacrificing anti-racism for political gain and achieving neither.”
As the Morning Star went to press it emerged another Labour parliamentary candidate, Graham Jones for Hyndburn, had been suspended for comments critical of Israel.
Mr Galloway, disinclined to miss an open goal, slammed Labour’s “disastrous failure to immediately repudiate” Mr Ali, and said he was now campaigning for a “landslide” to “rid Rochdale of Labour and all its works.”
Mr Ali joins the Green Party candidate who likewise is still on the ballot but not on the campaign trail, having been forced to abandon his efforts after brazenly anti-Muslim tweets he had authored emerged.
There is much talk of local Labour activists now swinging behind the candidacy of Reform UK’s Simon Danczuk, once Labour MP for the town.
His previous parliamentary career ended after he sent inappropriate messages to a 17-year-old girl, but neither that nor his present far-right positioning may be sufficient to deter Starmer supporters desperate to stop George Galloway.
However, it is the former Labour and Respect MP who now has the momentum. If successful, Rochdale will be the fourth constituency he has represented — allowing for boundary tweaks — in the Commons, equalling Winston Churchill’s modern record.
Speaking to the Morning Star, he said that a victory would “shake the walls. I would have a mandate like no other to speak on Gaza and for the millions protesting for Palestine.”
He pledged that his first act on re-entering parliament would be to demand a meeting with Rishi Sunak to press for a ceasefire in Gaza and action to impose a political solution on Israel.
The Gaza issue had “completely dominated this by-election,” he said, adding that the impact of his campaign showed that voters were losing faith in the two major parties.
“Rochdale has gone downhill for 30 years and people are at the end of their tether. Gaza is the last straw.
“When you then start supporting the mass murder of women and children — well, no party can expect support.”
The by-election will be held on February 29.
