ONLY a vote for the candidature of George Galloway in Rochdale will send a message of solidarity with Palestine amid the Gaza crisis, the Communist Party said on Tuesday night.

The party’s political committee discussed the “anti-democratic” and “farcical” by-election in the Lancashire town, where both Labour and the Greens have disowned their candidates.

Local momentum behind Mr Galloway reflects popular anger at Britain’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its endorsement by the Labour Party, the Communists said.

While not endorsing Mr Galloway’s chequered record, the CP political committee recognised his long championing of the Palestinian cause and opposing British imperialism’s “disastrous history of interventions” in the Middle East.

“The reality is that he is the only candidate on the ballot paper whose election would put pressure on the British government to stop arming and supplying Israel’s war,” the committee said.

With Simon Danczuk contesting the seat for far-right party Reform UK — which is routinely polling above 12 per cent in national polls — a vote for Mr Galloway is likely to be the best way to stop the far right now that the Labour Party has effectively withdrawn, it said.