George Galloway has warned Sir Keir Starmer that he has "woken up to his worst nightmare" after winning the Rochdale by-election overnight.
The victory marked a humiliating defeat for the Labour Party, whose former candidate Azhar Ali - who was disowned by the party after being accused of antisemitism - came fourth.
The seat was thought to be a safe hold for Labour, given the 10,000 majority won by Sir Tony Lloyd in 2019.
Galloway, representing the Workers' Party of Britain, won the by-election in Rochdale with a majority of 5,697, taking 12,335 votes. This amounts to just less than 40 per cent of the vote share.
Some 39.7 per cent of Rochdale residents turned out to vote yesterday. Independent David Tully came in a shock second place, with 6,638 votes and 21 per cent of the vote share.
In a humiliating result for Starmer, the Conservative Party came third with Labour in fourth, the Liberal Democrats fifth and Reform sixth.
Speaking to GB News after the count, Galloway warned: "Keir Starmer has woken up to his worst nightmare".
Asked if he will try to replicate last night's victory at a general election, Galloway warned: "Especially in this region. I don't know what will happen elsewhere in the country, but I have now received deputations from Bolton, from Oldham, from Blackburn, from Bury and from Tameside in Greater Manchester - and that's just the deputations I've received. We've got 59 parliamentary candidates ready to go".
Galloway fought his election campaign on a pro-Palestine ticket, using his victory speech to claim that "every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer"
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He added: "I know of many already in the field who will now be energised by the results here tonight.
"I think Keir Starmer has woken up this morning to his worst nightmare."
Speaking about the Labour Party, Galloway said the Workers' Party plans to "either defeat them ourselves or cause their defeat."
The Labour Party withdrew support for Ali after a recording emerged in which he claimed Israel was complicit in the terrorist attacks of October 7.
The by-election was called after the death of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd last month.
Galloway fought his election campaign on a pro-Palestine ticket, using his victory speech to claim that "every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer".
Speaking to GB News after the count, Galloway warned: "Keir Starmer has woken up to his worst nightmare"
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He said: “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza. 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. Rochdale Town councillors, I put you on notice now that I hope to put together a grand alliance of all the parties.”
He added: ”I want to tell Mr Starmer above all that the plates have shifted tonight.
”And as Jacob Rees Mogg just said on television [GB News], in talking of me as a parliamentary orator, of note that 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, beginning here in the Northwest, 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.
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During the count, Reform leader Richard Tice issued a statement claiming his candidate, Simon Danczuk, had experienced “death threats and abuse”.
”I've heard some of the narrative being spun around this election result this evening. Yes, it's true that every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer and his misnamed Labour Party.
”But you would be very foolish if you did not realize 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 here in Rochdale.”
The by-election was largely dominated by the conflict in Gaza with two candidates from both Labour and the Greens having support withdrawn by their parties over comments made in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
Both the former Labour candidate and Guy Otten, the former Green candidate, had their endorsements revoked after both candidates made inappropriate comments about Israel.
Tory candidate Paul Ellison also faced criticism for going on holiday during the campaign.
During the count, Reform leader Richard Tice issued a statement claiming his candidate, Simon Danczuk, had experienced “death threats and abuse”.
Reacting to Galloway's victory on social media, Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "George Galloway has an atrocious record of baiting the Jewish community. He has previously and infamously declared Bradford an ‘Israel-free zone’.
"He said of his previous election loss that ‘the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating’. He described David Baddiel, a Jewish comic who is well-known for not closely associating himself with Israel, as a ‘vile Israel-fanatic’.
"He claimed that the institutional antisemitism within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn was really ‘a disgraceful campaign of Goebbelsian fiction’, in reference to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist. He was sacked by TalkRadio over his views.
"Recently he has described the atrocity carried out by Hamas on 7th October as a ‘concentration camp breakout’ and referred to Hamas terrorists as ‘fighters’. Mr Galloway has now been chosen by the voters of Rochdale to represent them and is once again an MP.
"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."
