On 29 March 2012, George Galloway of the anti-war Respect Party secured a spectacular by-election victory in Bradford West, overturning a large Labour majority. The result dealt a severe blow to the Labour Party and marked an extraordinary return to parliament for Galloway.

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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.

The Respect Party was launched in January 2004 as a new left-wing alternative to New Labour under Tony Blair. The party, formally known as Respect – The Unity Coalition, emerged from the movement against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the 2005 general election, Galloway won the Bethnal Green and Bow seat for Respect, securing an 823-vote majority over Labour incumbent Oona King.

However, Galloway lost his seat at the 2010 general election.

The Bradford West by-election, triggered by the resignation due to ill health of the Labour MP Marsha Singh, was expected to be a comfortable hold for the official opposition. At the 2010 election, Singh won the seat for Labour with 18,401 votes (45.4%). The party had held the West Yorkshire seat since 1974, except for a brief period in the 1980s when the sitting MP defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

As such, Galloway vastly defied electoral expectations with a genuine landslide victory. He secured 18,341 votes (56%). The Labour candidate, Imran Hussein, finished second with 8,201 votes (25%). The party’s vote share fell by 20 points.

In his victory speech, Galloway hailed the result as “the most sensational victory in British by-election history” and the “Bradford Spring”.

In comments delivered shortly before the result’s declaration, Galloway claimed his path to victory went back to “the path of treason by Tony Blair in 1994” that has taken Labour “so far away from its traditional supporters that people feel neglected and betrayed”.

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He added: “[Labour has] to stop supporting illegal, bloody, costly foreign wars because one of the reasons why they were so decisively defeated this evening is that the public don’t believe that they have atoned for their role in the invasion and occupation of other people’s countries and the drowning of those countries in blood.”

The Respect campaign mobilised a large section of the constituency’s Muslim electorate, focusing on foreign policy issues. 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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Speaking in the wake of the result, Labour MP Michael Dugher pointed to the novel nature of Galloway’s campaign. He told BBC News that Bradford West was “possibly the first by-election in history that was fought and even won on social media”.

He added: “So you had George Galloway with 85,000 followers on his Facebook page [while] our candidate was knocking on doors the old-fashioned way.”

Ed Miliband, the Labour Party leader, responded: “We should have won this by-election and I am very disappointed we did not.

“I think this was to do with local factors that were particular to the constituency and we have got to understand those lessons.”

Galloway has consistently shown a unique ability to topple large Labour leads.

Galloway was unseated in Bradford West at the 2015 general election. The Labour candidate, Naz Shah, won 19,977 votes (49.6%). Galloway placed second with 8,557 votes (21.2%).

Shah voted for Galloway in the 2012 by-election, later commenting: “I voted for Galloway in 2012 because he promised change. Within months it was really clear that he didn’t care about Bradford.

“That was the first time I actually held my politician to account and got involved locally. And obviously my own background, I was born in Bradford West and it made me who I am and it’s where I want to make change.”

Galloway returned to parliament in February 2024 after winning the Rochdale by-election in exceptional and chaotic circumstances.