Rochdale byelection live: Labour ‘apologises to the people of Rochdale’ after George Galloway victory | Politics
Labour apologises to Rochdale for byelection result, saying Galloway only won because it did not have proper candidate
Labour says George Galloway is “only interested in stoking fear and division”.
In a statement issued about the byelection result, the party apologised to the people of Rochdale for the fact that it did not have a proper candidate. (Azhar Ali, who was selected as Labour’s candidate, was disowned by the party after nominations closed because it was revealed that he had made antisemitic comments after the Hamas attack on Gaza. But it was too late to change nominations, and so he was listed as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper.) A Labour spokesperson said:
We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this byelection and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.
Rochdale deserved the chance to vote for an MP that would bring communities together and deliver for working people. George Galloway is only interested in stoking fear and division. As an MP he will be a damaging force in our communities and public life.
The Labour party will quickly begin the process to select a new Labour candidate for the general election, and will be campaigning hard to deliver the representation and fresh start that Rochdale deserves.
Key events
On the Today programme this morning Allen Brett, a former Labour leader of Rochdale council, said he did not think the byelection “will have much effect nationally”. He would not say how he voted, it was not for George Galloway, he said. “I don’t think he’s for Rochdale, I think he’s for himself,” Brett said.
Brett said that he was impressed by the Dave Tully, the independent candidate who came second. “He’s a lovely fellow,” he said. He went on:
If he’d had a bit more professional advice to start with, I think he would have done even better. He did not even know that he could send everybody a leaflet via the post.
If Labour had had a proper candidate, Galloway would not have won, he said. He added:
I think locally the Labour party needs to ask why they rubbed this election.
Nima Omer has a good overview of the Rochdale byelection result in her First Edition briefing. Here is an extract.
The mood in the room was mixed when the results came in. There were a lot of Galloway supporters both inside the room and outside. “Dozens of people were there for hours, practising their chants on a freezing cold night in Rochdale,” Josh [Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England correspondent] says – a microcosm of the zeal and vigour of Galloway’s supporters.
The deep divisions laid bare over the course of the campaign were palpable too: “As [Galloway] prepared to stand on the victory podium, I heard mutterings from other campaigners of ‘terrorist sympathiser’, ‘the people of Rochdale are thick’ and ‘woe to Rochdale’,” Josh says.
Galloway made it clear what he thinks his victory means for the Labour party: more losses in the coming general election. He wants to create a movement in towns and cities with similar profiles to Rochdale: “I think this victory tonight will spread far,” he said, adding that the win “could be the beginning of something new, something big”.
Despite the stunning landslide on Galloway’s side, Josh says it is important to keep perspective: “You’ve got to take this with a pinch of salt. This is a byelection, it’s got a lower turnout than a general election and also Labour has not put up a fight for the last two and a half weeks of the campaign.” Were Labour to actually stand in a general election, the results would likely be far closer, he adds, though Galloway could still win again.
And here is the full article.
Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast has posted a good thread on X about the significance of Galloway’s victory in Rochdale. It starts here.
What does the Galloway victory mean?
For the general election, very little. This was a unique by election and little is transferable. But it does change politics before the election and possibly tells us something about the shape of politics after it as well.
🧵 https://t.co/HXT7feY0nZ
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) March 1, 2024
What does the Galloway victory mean?
For the general election, very little. This was a unique by election and little is transferable. But it does change politics before the election and possibly tells us something about the shape of politics after it as well.
And here are some of his points.
More broadly, as Galloway’s election win will inspire and energise some on the left, it will incense the right. They will argue it proves some of their dark warnings about a rising radical Islamist party right. They’ll argue this is a portent of things to come.
But for now, this is mainly noise. In electoral terms, it won’t matter at all. Labour will probably win the seat back in the general. Most of his MPs loathe Galloway . Starmer will hope the ceasefire comes soon to take a little of the political pressure away.
There’s little doubt Starmer and Labour have been doing less well with Muslim voters than in the Corbyn years. That was true before Gaza and it’s become more pronounced since. Right now that isn’t a huge problem for Labour as their overall poll lead is so massive…
..but after an election and with the hard yards of governing begun, you can entirely see the circumstances where it becomes a problem. Poll lead vanishes and suddenly there are lots of seats in play like Rochdale where the Muslim vote isn’t massive but potentially pivotal.
The Tories meanwhile will at least be relieved that though their candidate performed abysmally Reform didn’t do much better. All eyes for them on Blackpool. But this is a story which is basically about Labour mismanagement. A complete car crash.
Momentum says Labour’s defeat in Rochdale ‘self-inflicted loss’
Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, has described the party’s defeat in Rochdale as a “self-inflicted loss”. A party spokesperson said:
This was a needless and self-inflicted loss for Labour.
First, Starmer’s utterly factional selection processes resulted in a candidate who was clearly unfit for office. Then the Labour Leadership tried to defend him as one of their own. Finally, Keir Starmer’s failure to stand with Gaza in its hour of need left the door open for George Galloway.
To avoid any more damaging repeats, Starmer should end the factional abuse of Labour’s selection processes and stand up for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaze.
Nicholas Watt from Newsnight interviewed George Galloway as he was leaving the count. Galloway told him:
If you believe that Keir Starmer is genuinely seeking an end to the slaughter in Gaza, I’ve got a bridge in London that I could sell you.
Labour apologises to Rochdale for byelection result, saying Galloway only won because it did not have proper candidate
Labour says George Galloway is “only interested in stoking fear and division”.
In a statement issued about the byelection result, the party apologised to the people of Rochdale for the fact that it did not have a proper candidate. (Azhar Ali, who was selected as Labour’s candidate, was disowned by the party after nominations closed because it was revealed that he had made antisemitic comments after the Hamas attack on Gaza. But it was too late to change nominations, and so he was listed as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper.) A Labour spokesperson said:
We deeply regret that the Labour party was unable to field a candidate in this byelection and apologise to the people of Rochdale. George Galloway only won because Labour did not stand.
Rochdale deserved the chance to vote for an MP that would bring communities together and deliver for working people. George Galloway is only interested in stoking fear and division. As an MP he will be a damaging force in our communities and public life.
The Labour party will quickly begin the process to select a new Labour candidate for the general election, and will be campaigning hard to deliver the representation and fresh start that Rochdale deserves.
At the count George Galloway dismissed complaints from Richard Tice, the Reform UK leader, about the result. (See 5.39am.) He claimed Tice had tried to recruit him as a candidate. Galloway said:
I think Mr Tice has rather lost his balance, and Mr [Nigel] Farage too, and I remind Mr Tice that I have on my telephone a text from him inviting me to be the Reform UK candidate in a by-election not that long ago.
I’d prefer not to publish it, but if he keeps telling lies about me I will have to tell the truth about him.
Asked whether his supporters had engaged in bad behaviour, Galloway said:
Absolutely none. Ask the police, ask the police if a single one of our supporters has been arrested or spoken to by them.
How Galloway is returning to parliament for his third party, representing a fourth constituency
Here is a profile of George Galloway by Helen Pidd and Ben Quinn.
Galloway claims Labour has ‘lost confidence of millions of their voters’ who backed them ‘generation after generation’
Andrew Sparrow
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Jonathan Yerushalmy.
Here is more from what George Galloway said in his victory speech at the count.
Keir Starmer – this is for Gaza. And you will pay a high price, in enabling, encouraging and covering for, the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip.
Rochdale town councillors, I put you on notice now, that I hope to put together a grand alliance …
At this point Galloway was interrupted by a heckler calling him a climate change denier. She was drowned out by Galloway’s supporters chanting his name. He went on:
The councillors have to go.
I want to tell Mr Starmer above all, that the plates have shifted tonight. This is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies.
Beginning here in the north west, in the West Midlands, in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green and Bow, Labour is on notice that they have lost the confidence of millions of their voters who loyally and traditionally voted for them, generation after generation …
I’ve heard some of the narrative being spun around this election result this evening. Yes its true, that every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer and his listing Labour party.
But you would be very foolish, if you did not realise that millions of other citizens of our country are too.
Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside and they both got well and truly spanked tonight!
Galloway ended his speech saying: “God bless you. God bless Rochdale. God bless Gaza.”
We will be opening comments on the blog later.
Here are some images from the byelection count and Galloway’s victory speech:
During his victory speech, Galloway was interrupted by a heckler accusing him of being a “climate change denier”.
He then had confetti thrown at him by Mark Coleman – who ran in the byelection as an independent candidate and is a supporter of Just Stop Oil.
Josh Halliday
George Galloway, one of the most divisive politicians in Britain, won almost 40% of the vote in a contest beset by chaos and controversy and dominated by the conflict in Gaza.
Labour, defending a near-10,000-vote majority and riding high in the polls, had expected a straightforward contest to replace the sitting MP, Tony Lloyd, who died on 17 January from leukaemia. But its campaign was thrown into disarray when it emerged its candidate, Azhar Ali, had repeated anti-Israel conspiracy theories about the 7 October attack by Hamas.
Labour was eventually forced to disown Ali and abandoned its campaign barely a week into the contest. Although Ali’s name was on the ballot paper – it was too late to select another candidate – Labour stopped all electioneering in the town nearly three weeks ago.
Galloway, on the other hand, was galvanised. The fedora-sporting politician toured Rochdale with a megaphone, calling the byelection “a referendum on Gaza” and a chance to stage a protest against Labour.
His team, backed by an army of volunteers from across the country, managed to capture the vote of a significant number of Muslim people, who make up about 30% of the town’s population, with many angry about Labour’s position on Gaza.
Galloway, an ex-Labour MP, has now unseated his former party in three elections and will return to parliament representing a fourth constituency in 37 years.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice claims byelection ‘not free and fair’ after his candidate comes sixth
Reform UK finished in sixth place with only 6.3% of the vote. A Reform UK source told the Guardian the party had under-performed due to logistics: the Rochdale contest was the third byelection it had fought in three weeks and it had been focusing on its party conference in Doncaster last weekend.
Richard Tice, leader of Reform, speaking at the election count, said the poll in Rochdale had “not been a free and fair election”.
What we witnessed here is deeply disturbing. Our candidate and campaign team have been subjected to death threats, vile racist abuse, been refused entry to hustings in council buildings and had to be re-located for their own safety.
We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy, this shameful contest has been more characteristic of a failed state.”
Earlier this week a 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of sending a death threat to the Reform candidate, Simon Danczuk, who hired security guards for the final two days of campaigning.
Rochdale byelection: full results
George Galloway’s campaign team claimed early on in the night that the former Labour and Respect MP would win “comfortably”, and so it proved.
Galloway won 12,335 votes – 39.7% of the total – in a much more sweeping victory than anyone had predicted, giving him a 5,697-vote majority.
The surprise runner-up was David Tully, a local businessman and independent candidate, who secured more than 6,600 votes.
Here are the full results from PA Media. They mark it down as a gain for the Workers Party of Britain (WPB), Galloway’s party, from Labour.
WPB gain from Lab
George Galloway (WPB) 12,335 (39.65%)
David Tully (Ind) 6,638 (21.34%)
Paul Ellison (C) 3,731 (11.99%, -19.21%)
Azhar Ali (Lab) 2,402 (7.72%, -43.86%)
Iain Donaldson (LD) 2,164 (6.96%, -0.02%)
Simon Danczuk (Reform) 1,968 (6.33%)
William Howarth (Ind) 523 (1.68%)
Mark Coleman (ND) 455 (1.46%)
Guy Otten (Green) 436 (1.40%, -0.68%)
Michael Howarth (Ind) 246 (0.79%)
Ravin Rodent Subortna (Loony) 209 (0.67%)
WPB maj 5,697 (18.31%)
Electorate 82,615; Turnout 31,107 (37.65%, -22.48%)
2019 result: Lab maj 9,668 (20.38%) – Turnout 47,447 (60.13%)
Lloyd (Lab) 24,475 (51.58%); Shah (C) 14,807 (31.21%); Green (Brexit)
3,867 (8.15%); Kelly (LD) 3,312 (6.98%); Croke (Green) 986 (2.08%)
George Galloway calls Rochdale win a ‘shifting of the tectonic plates’
The veteran political agitator George Galloway has won the Rochdale byelection after urging voters to lodge “the ultimate protest” over the conflict in Gaza.
After his victory was declared at about 01:45am, Galloway spoke to the assembled crowd at the count. He said:
Keir Starmer – this is for Gaza. And you will pay a high price, in enabling, encouraging and covering for, the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza Strip.
Galloway was then interrupted by a woman, shouting that he was a “climate change denier” before she was shouted down and drowned out by shouts of “Gall-o-way! Gall-o-way!”.
Galloway continued:
I want to tell Mr Starmer above all that the plates have shifted tonight. This is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies.
Labour, which disowned its candidate, Azhar Ali, over inflammatory comments he made about Israel, finished in fourth place with 7.7% of the vote. Although Ali’s name was on the ballot paper – it was too late to select another candidate – Labour stopped all electioneering in the town nearly three weeks ago.
Here is our news story about Galloway’s victory by Josh Halliday and Aneesa Ahmed.
