Following his Rochdale by-election win with 40% of the vote, George Galloway claimed it marked the “shifting of the tectonic plates”. Independent candidate David Tully was runner-up on 21%, while the Conservative candidate and the (disowned) Labour candidate took less than 20% between them. Luke Tryl in the Telegraph isn’t so sure, saying polling indicates it was more a protest against “Broken Britain” than a herald of the “Gaza election”.
No doubt, Galloway will be a major thorn in Starmer’s side in Parliament and embolden those who see the Labour Party’s stance on Gaza as an Achilles’ heel. The Conservative Party, which might have hoped to capitalise on Labour’s implosion, will have been disappointed to finish third. Meanwhile, Reform U.K. will have its own questions to ask. At a by-election in the neighbouring seat in 2014, Ukip took nearly 40% of the vote, whereas Simon Danczuk, Reform’s candidate, took just 6% yesterday.
But despite all that, the idea that the next General Election will be “The Gaza Election” is far-fetched. In focus groups in Rochdale, we found Muslim and non-Muslim voters alike were dismayed that their by-election was being treated as a referendum on the Middle East. They wanted to hear what the candidates were going to do to reduce crime in the town centre, to help them get off never-ending waiting lists and to make the cost of living less painful.
That is not to say they weren’t concerned or angry about the situation in Palestine, but rather that they felt strongly that politicians should be focusing first on issues closer to home. As one participant told us: “There’s no point in tackling world peace when the area you live in is a s—hole.” For many, a vote for Galloway and David Tully reflected their frustrations with “Broken Britain” and an expression of the “anti-politics” mood we hear week in, week out from the public.
But the truth is, the moment Labour suspended its candidate for his antisemitic remarks, and removed its campaigning support, it became impossible to draw wider conclusions from this election.
Labour took over 50% in Rochdale in 2019 and could have been expected to take even more given the shift in the polls since then, but the absence of an endorsed Labour candidate left much of that vote up for grabs by outsiders. …
In our latest poll, 67% of respondents said that the cost of living was one of the most important issues facing the country. In comparison, just 8% said the same about conflict in the Middle East.
Worth reading in full.
Let’s hope Tryl’s right. It will be interesting to see whether Starmer’s position on the war shifts after this.
Nigel Farage is less sanguine. Also writing in the Telegraph, he says he has repeatedly warned that U.K. politics was “heading in a sectarian direction”. His fears that “this new form of sectarianism will lead to the hard-Left Islamist party getting a foothold in Westminster” have been proved right, he adds.
In the upcoming British General Election, there will be a well-funded campaign that will focus on up to 30 urban constituencies that have large Muslim populations. By 2029, this could really hurt the Labour party, which will serve them right in many ways for an irresponsible immigration policy.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has said Galloway’s victory is a “dark day for the Jewish community”.
George Galloway is a demagogue and conspiracy theorist, who has brought the politics of division and hate to every place he has ever stood for Parliament.
His election is a dark day for the Jewish community in this country, and for British politics in general. We believe he should be shunned as a pariah by all Parliamentarians.
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