On 29 February 2024, the veteran politician George Galloway secured a dramatic return to parliament, winning the Rochdale by-election by a landslide. The victory for his Workers Party of Britain (WPB) came after the Labour Party’s campaign imploded.

Galloway was first elected to parliament as the Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead in 1987. He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 over his outspoken opposition to the Iraq War and comments made about the actions of the government, led by Tony Blair as prime minister.

Since his expulsion, Galloway has secured several notable electoral victories – running on anti-war, anti-capitalist platforms. At the 2005 general election, Galloway won the Bethnal Green and Bow seat for the new Respect Party, securing an 823-vote majority over Labour incumbent Oona King. He lost his seat at the 2010 general election.

On 29 March 2012, Galloway and Respect won a spectacular by-election victory in Bradford West, overturning a large Labour majority.

Central to Galloway’s historic success has been a strategy of “differential turnout”, focused on mobilising Muslim voters in constituencies where they form a significant share of the electorate. By emphasising issues that resonate strongly within these communities, Galloway helps ensure they make up a disproportionate share of those who turn out.

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Galloway founded the Workers Party of Britain in the wake of the 2019 general election. The WPB’s 10-point plan, issued upon its founding, calls for “withdrawal from” Nato and an end to “imperialist wars and financial domination.”

The party’s platform is also centred around support for Palestinian rights and anti-Zionism.

The WPB’s first notable electoral contest was the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, where Galloway came in third place with 8,264 votes (21.9%) of the vote. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour candidate, placed first with 13,296 votes (35.3%).

The Rochdale by-election was triggered by the death of the long-serving Labour MP, Sir Tony Lloyd, who had won the constituency with a 9,668-vote majority at the 2019 general election.

The Labour campaign descended into chaos after audio recordings emerged of its candidate, Azhar Ali, suggesting that Israel had deliberately “allowed” the 7 October massacre to go ahead. After initially defending him, the Labour leadership was ultimately forced to withdraw all support. This decision came after the Daily Mail newspaper published a fuller recording, allegedly of Ali, which blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for the suspension of left-wing MP Andy McDonald from the Labour Party.

McDonald, a former frontbencher, was suspended after telling a pro-Palestinian rally: “We will not rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea, can live in peaceful liberty.”

However, as the deadline to replace Ali had passed, he remained on the ballot as the official Labour candidate.

This unprecedented situation allowed Galloway to dominate the campaign. He directly targeted Rochdale’s large Muslim population, framing the vote as a referendum on Keir Starmer’s leadership and Labour’s stance on Gaza.

Galloway won with 12,335 votes, representing 39.7% of the vote share and a majority of 5,697. In his victory speech, he directly addressed the Labour leader, declaring: “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza.”

Galloway added: “You [Starmer] will pay a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Gaza, in the Gaza Strip.”

Rochdale became the fourth parliamentary constituency Galloway had represented in a long and storied political career.

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The result was a significant embarrassment for the Labour Party, exposing fissures within its traditional electoral coalition.

In his maiden speech (technically his fourth maiden speech), Galloway told the House: “I just want to say that having given both parties a good spanking on 29 February, I have my boots on to give them a good kicking any time I catch your eye, madam deputy speaker.”

The fissures in Rochdale would receive further exposition at the 2024 general election, which saw a series of independent candidates elected on platforms that emphasised Palestinian solidarity.

Galloway lost his seat to Labour’s Paul Waugh.

Waugh, a former lobby journalist, had featured on the initial shortlist of potential Labour candidates drawn up by the party ahead of the Rochdale by-election.

Galloway, after all, was only the MP for Rochdale for 92 days.