WORKERS PARTY leader George Galloway told his party’s manifesto launch event today that he will be the genuine leader of the opposition to Sir Keir Starmer.

Speaking in Manchester, Mr Galloway also predicted that if the Labour leader became premier — as seems all but certain after July 4 — Britain will be at war in six months.

Standing 154 election candidates on a platform of state economic intervention, anti-imperialism and patriotism, the Workers Party’s main target is Labour voters.

“We want the votes of people who genuinely believe in what they thought was Labourism, we want the votes of those who want peace not war, and we want the votes of those who are repulsed by the bipartisan support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” Mr Galloway said, adding, “that’s millions of people.”

He also warned that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is “walking away with this election because of the deliberate contrived vacuity of the programmes” of Sir Keir and PM Rishi Sunak.

Mr Farage, he said, was the “third cheek of the uniparty” with indistinguishable polices on war, nuclear weapons, tax, economic policies and other issues, and he slammed the Reform party owner for blaming the country’s problems on migrants.

Mr Galloway said that the Workers Party’s substantial programme of social improvements could be funded through diverting the “£12,000 a minute spent every minute of every day on nuclear weapons.”

The world was now closer “to world war three than we have ever been,” he said, “and we are seeing a Dutch auction between Labour and the Conservatives as to who will spend more.”

Asked to identify a single reason to offer voters to choose the Workers Party, which is fighting its first general election, Mr Galloway pointed to “British participation in the genocide in Gaza, supported by both Labour and the Tories, which is a national disgrace.”

Mr Galloway said that the party was most likely to make gains in Brimingham, parts of east London, Manchester and Southall in west London.

The Workers Party leader is himself defending his seat in Rochdale, which he won in a by-election in February mainly on the issue of solidarity with Gaza.

The manifesto commits to withdrawal from Nato, a referendum on the future of the monarchy, a major programme of social housebuilding, retirement at 60, major investment in the national infrastructure and “working-class economic priorities.”