Keir Starmer issued a grovelling apology to voters today after George Galloway stormed home in the Rochdale by-election.
The Labour leader voiced ‘regret’ after the pro-Palestinian firebrand emerged victorious in the normally-safe seat after one of the most divisive and chaotic contests in recent history.
Mr Galloway immediately vowed to use the platform to torment Sir Keir over his stance towards Israel in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.
He insisted he would be the Opposition chief’s ‘worst nightmare’ – fuelling fears that the Gaza crisis could erode Labour’s support in Muslim communities.
But surfacing to face questions this afternoon, Sir Keir argued that Mr Galloway only won because Labour had to disown its candidate Azhar Ali over remarks condemned as anti-Semitic.
‘Galloway only won because Labour didn’t stand a candidate,’ Sir Keir told broadcasters.
‘I regret that we had to withdraw our candidate and apologise to voters in Rochdale.
‘But I took that decision, it was the right decision. And when I say I’ve changed the Labour Party I mean it.
‘Obviously we will put a first class candidate, a unifier, before the voters in Rochdale at the general election.’
Rishi Sunak said the Tory candidate – who came third – was the only contender to run a ‘positive’ campaign.
Mr Galloway will return to Westminster after a nine-year absence as a representative of a third different political party – the Workers Party of Britain – having previously been both a Labour and Respect MP.
Rochdale was previously held by Sir Tony Lloyd, who died in January.
George Galloway has clinched a stunning victory in the Rochdale by-election after one of the most divisive and controversial contests in recent history
‘Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,’ the 69-year-old declared, as soon as he was announced as the winning candidate in Rochdale just before 3am
Keir Starmer pictured this morning as he faces more problems on his Gaza stance
Mr Galloway, who put a hardline pro-Palestinian stance at the heart of his campaign, is now set to end his nine-year absence from the House of Commons
Mr Galloway kisses his wife, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, during the by-election result declaration in Rochdale
Mr Galloway coasted home after Labour disowned its candidate in a normally-safe seat
The father-of-six won 12,335 votes in the by-election, which was just under 40 per cent of the vote share.
This put him ahead of second-placed independent candidate David Tully who won 6,638 votes (21 per cent).
Mr Ali was fourth with just 2,402 votes (7.72 per cent).
His name appeared on the ballot papers as a Labour candidate because the decision to drop him came after the cut-off point.
There is not thought to be a modern precedent for two effectively independent candidates coming first and second in a Parliamentary contest.
At 39.7 per cent, turnout was slightly higher than in the recent Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections.
And the scale of the victory raised questions about whether Labour would have been able to defeat Mr Galloway even if their campaign had not derailed.
Sir Tony had won Rochdale for Labour at the 2019 general election with a majority of almost 10,000 votes.
Mr Galloway used his victory speech to go on the attack against Sir Keir Starmer over the Labour leader’s Gaza stance after being declared the by-election winner.
He warned Sir Keir: ‘You have paid and you 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 Palestine in the Gaza Strip.’
Mr Galloway was interrupted by a woman shouting that he was a ‘climate change denier’ before she was drowned out by shouts of ‘Gall-o-way! Gall-o-way!’.
‘I want to tell Mr Starmer above all, the plates have shifted tonight,’ Mr Galloway then continued.
‘Keir Starmer’s problems just got 100 times more serious than they were before today.
‘This is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies.’
Mr Galloway claimed Labour was now ‘on notice that they have lost the confidence of millions of their voters who loyally and traditionally voted for them’.
‘I’ve heard some of the narrative being spun around this election result this evening,’ he added. ‘Yes it’s 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!’
Afterwards Mr Galloway said: ‘I think Keir Starmer has woken up this morning to his worst nightmare.’
Mr Galloway posed for photos outside his campaign HQ in Rochdale today after his triumph
Mr Galloway was all smiles as he was photographed with wife Putri
The ex-Labour MP and Celebrity Big Brother contestant was pictured voting in Rochdale on Thursday
Votes for Mr Galloway, who put a hardline pro-Palestinian stance at the heart of his campaign, are seen on a table at a polling station
Mr Galloway, a controversial figure, became the favourite to win in Rochdale after Labour’s bid to retain the seat imploded
Votes are taken out of a ballot box for counting during the Rochdale by-election, which has been one of the most divisive and controversial by-election contests in recent history
Simon Danczuk, the Reform UK candidate, is pictured at the Rochdale count with his wife Claudine and party leader Richard Tice (left)
Mr Danczuk was another ex-Labour MP looking for a way back into Parliament having previously been Rochdale’s MP between 2010 and 2017
During a visit to the Baker Hughes facility in Montrose, Angus, Mr Sunak was asked if George Galloway’s election win would inflame tensions.
He said: ‘It was very concerning to see the reports of intimidation through the by-election, and by all accounts one of the most divisive campaigns that we’ve seen in recent times.
‘I’m pleased the Conservative Party was the only party to run a really positive campaign focused on local issues with a great local candidate, Paul Ellison.’
The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham told a press conference this afternoon: ‘Labour has let the people of Rochdale down because it didn’t give them a good enough choice at the election held yesterday.
‘It’s right that the leader of the party has apologised to the people of Rochdale but we will now work with him and his team to make sure there is some reflection on what has happened, some honesty, so that we can all come together and work together to regain the trust of the people of Rochdale, and that is exactly what we will do working with the leader of Rochdale Borough Council.
‘We pride ourselves on being a city region of diversity, of solidarity. We have a large Muslim community but the biggest Jewish community outside of London, and the leaders of both of those communities work together, and we pride ourselves on the cohesion between the different communities in Greater Manchester.
In a round of interviews this morning, Labour’s deputy campaign director Ellie Reeves told Sky News: ‘Labour regrets that we couldn’t stand a candidate in this by-election and we apologise to the people of Rochdale for that.
‘George Galloway is someone who stokes up division and fear. This isn’t how we would have wanted this by-election to play out.
‘The Labour candidate was removed as the candidate because of comments that he made. Keir Starmer took swift and decisive action to do that, because being a Labour candidate requires the highest of standards.’
Asked who Labour would have liked to see win the greater Manchester seat, she said: ‘That was for the people of Rochdale to decide.’
Ms Reeves said: ‘We’ve set out our position on Gaza and that was adopted by the Commons just the other week.
Labour’s bid to retain the seat imploded when they had to ditch support for local councillor Azhar Ali as their official candidate following an anti-Semitism storm
‘We’ve said there should be an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, that the loss of life has been intolerable, there must be no ground offensive in Rafah, aid has to be ramped up into the region, and, importantly, that we need to find a two-state solution.’
The contest to replace Sir Tony as Rochdale’s MP was marred by raging tensions over Gaza, with claims of death threats, candidates wearing stab vests, and vandalism.
Mr Galloway, a controversial figure, became the favourite to win the by-election after Labour’s bid to retain the Greater seat imploded.
Sir Keir’s party had to ditch support for Mr Ali, a local councillor, as their official candidate following the emergence of his remarks about Israel.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) expressed its concerns about Mr Galloway’s own views following his victory in Rochdale.
A spokesman said: ‘George Galloway has an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community.
‘Given his historic inflammatory rhetoric and the current situation faced by the Jewish community in this country, we are extremely concerned by how he may use the platform of the House of Commons in the remaining months of this parliament.’
Ahead of the Rochdale result being declared in the early hours of Friday, supporters of Mr Galloway had predicted a comfortable win for their candidate.
Chris Williamson, a former Labour MP and now deputy leader of Mr Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain, told Sky News: ‘We believe that we’ve won comfortably today and it really will, I think, send shockwaves through the Palace of Westminster.
‘But it will also, I think, give hope to tens of thousands, if not millions of people in the country who are looking for a genuine alternative, because our democracy has been stolen from us.
‘The Labour Party and the Conservative Party are effectively often the same thing.’
He added that a victory for Mr Galloway represented ‘a total rejection of mainstream party politics’.
James Giles, campaign manager for Mr Galloway, said: ‘It is going better than our wildest hopes. George will win here by a fair margin.’
A victory rally has been planned by Galloway supporters at their campaign HQ – a Suzuki car dealership in the town.
Simon Danczuk, the Reform UK candidate, was another ex-Labour MP looking for a way back into Parliament having previously been Rochdale’s MP between 2010 and 2017.
He quit Labour almost seven years ago amid a ‘sexting’ scandal, when he was alleged to have sent explicit messages to a teenager.
Reform leader Richard Tice earlier conceded that Mr Danczuk’s bid in Rochdale had failed, telling Sky News: ‘There’s no question Mr Galloway has won this election by what looks like a considerable margin. Everyone else, frankly, is also rans.’
Mr Tice bemoaned how ‘menacing behaviour’ had ‘been a feature of this entire campaign’ including ‘outside polling stations’ on Thursday.
He also questioned the validity of postal votes returned during the contest.
Former Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has previously criticised postal voting on a number of occasions following defeats for his various parties.
Mr Danczuk secured a little more than 6 per cent of the vote, coming sixth behind Mr Ali, the former Labour candidate.
William Howarth, an independent candidate said he agreed with Mr Tice that there had been an ‘element of intimidation’ running through the election campaign.
He revealed he was abused by a man carrying a Palestine flag on Thursday in Rochdale town centre.
After spotting his rosette the man called him ‘a dirty Zionist bastard’, Mr Howarth said. He added the man was arrested by police.
Mr Danczuk previously reported being the subject of a death threat during the campaign with police said to have made an arrest.
Mr Galloway denied his supporters had engaged in any intimidation, and claimed on Sky News that Mr Tice had invited him to be a Reform UK candidate in a recent by-election.
He added that he hoped he would be introduced to the Commons by Conservative former minister Sir David Davis and the former Labour leader, and now independent MP, Jeremy Corbyn.
There had been thoughts that Mr Ali might go on to win the Rochdale contest, after Labour discarded him too late to remove him from ballot paper.
He told ITV News on Thursday: ‘I’m still on the ballot paper, I’ve been campaigning for the last few weeks and I’m hoping for a positive result.’
Asked whether he would take up his seat in the House of Commons if he won the by-election, Mr Ali replied: ‘Absolutely.’
There had also been controversy around Green candidate Guy Otten, who had his party’s support withdrawn over comments he made on Twitter.
But, like Mr Ali, his name still appeared on ballot papers when locals went to polling stations on Thursday.
Labour’s campaign fell apart after a recording surfaced of Mr Ali suggesting Israel ‘deliberately allowed’ Hamas terror attacks on October 7 as a pretext to invade Gaza.
Shadow cabinet members Lisa Nandy and Anneliese Dodds both campaigned for him before Labour eventually withdrew support amid growing criticism.
The action against Mr Ali also followed the emergence of a fuller recording in which he was heard commenting on ‘people in the media from certain Jewish quarters’.
Mr Ali subsequently apologised ‘to Jewish leaders for my inexcusable comments’.
After he was ditched by Labour, local voters were urged to ‘teach Keir Starmer a lesson’ by continuing to support Mr Ali.
Pro-Palestinian backers of Mr Ali were reported to be sharing anti-Starmer posters on WhatsApp in a bid to drum up votes.
Alongside an image of Mr Ali, one read: ‘Sacked by Starmer for speaking on Palestine. It’s time to teach Starmer a lesson in Rochdale. Vote Azhar Ali.’
Another depicted Sir Keir as a clown and dubbed the Labour leader as ‘anti Palestine Starmer’, in comparison to Mr Ali as ‘a stong voice for Palestine’.
Mr Galloway’s campaign was also heavy on the Palestinian cause and Gaza, an issue close to the heart of many of Rochdale’s Muslim population.
His team believed 15,000 votes would be enough to win most by-elections and Rochdale has a 30,000-strong Asian community.
There had been incidents of his campaign posters being torn down.
The contest in Rochdale was prompted by the death of former Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd at the age of 73 last month
Mr Danczuk had branded Mr Galloway’s campaign divisive and claimed his rival would be the ‘MP for Gaza’, not Rochdale.
The Tories were never expecting any success in Rochdale, with the Greater Manchester constituency having not had a Conservative MP since the 1950s.
Tory ex-Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick on Thursday hit out at how the Rochdale contest had become known as the ‘Gaza by-election’.
He criticised some candidates for being ‘more interested in a conflict they have no influence over than improving the lives of local people’, adding: ‘Shameful.’
Rochdale, which is one of the most deprived in England and voted 60 per cent in favour of Brexit, has also been the subject of Asian grooming gang scandals.
A major report in January concluded that young girls were left ‘at the mercy’ of paedophiles due to failings by senior police and council bosses.
Mr Howarth, involved in the group Parents Against Grooming UK, stood at the by-election as an independent.
He said he had taken to wearing a stab-vest while campaigning, such were tensions in the town during the contest.
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