Former Labour MP Stephen Pound has said he is “weeping” for the people of Rochdale after George Galloway stormed to victory in the Rochdale by-election.
The Workers Party leader won the by-election in Rochdale with a majority of 5,697 after pulling in 12,335 votes, with the second-place candidate, David Tully, coming in with 6,638.
The Tory candidate Paul Ellison came in third place with 3,731 (-11,076)
Breaking down the results further by the percentage of the vote, Galloway received: 39.7 per cent, Tully received 21.3 per cent, Ellison received 12.0 per cent, Azhar Ali received 7.7 per cent, Iain Donaldson received 7.0 per cent, and Simon Danczuk received 6.3 per cent.
WATCH HERE: Stephen Pound 'WEEPS' for the people of Rochdale
Ahead of the results as the polls closed, George Galloway released a statement, saying: “Thank you to every voter who took the time to send a message to the political class.
“Today more than ever, they are two cheeks of the same backside and in just a few hours they're set to get a good kicking.
“No matter how you voted today, thank you for doing so. I promise, if elected tonight to be an MP for all Rochdalians, no matter who you voted for.”
Reacting to the statement, GB News’ Tom Harwood asked former Labour MP Stephen Pound and Conservative supporter Lady McAlpine for their thoughts.
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Stephen Pound was reacting to a statement made by Galloway ahead of the results
GB News
Harwood said: “Stephen, let's start with you because as we were going through that statement, you noticed a phrase from George Galloway.
“Of course, once a Labour MP, then a Respect MP in a by-election, not unsimilar to this now the Workers Party of Britain. But you say this phrase two cheeks of the same backside is a perennial.”
The former Labour MP replied: “It's a George Galloway tribute act. Now he's trotting out this, the same ghastly tropes.
“He's still treating the Palestinian people with utter contempt by using their bones to build a pulpit for himself, to spew this divisive rubbish that he always does.
Tom Harwood asked Stephen Pound about the statement
GB News
“I was on television with him years ago and the first thing he said was ‘Blair and Brown: two cheeks of the same part’, he used a slightly different word, not backside.
“He used that against me and somebody else. He just uses it over and over again. There's not an original thought.
“And for me, I have to say the thing that breaks my heart about this. Last Friday week I was in a church in Manchester, Tony Lloyd's funeral at Saint Hugh of Lincoln Church. The place was packed.
“Tony was a good friend of mine, or Joe as we used to call him, everybody called him that.
“We served in Northern Ireland together for a long, long time and to see this ghastly embroidery, these shenanigans which actually make what happened last week in the House of Commons, look fairly placid.
The by-election in Rochdale was sparked after veteran Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd died on January 17PA“What a horrific comment on Tony's record and his legacy which has been destroyed and trampled on.
“So I think the point with George Galloway, it's the same old nonsense which we saw in Bradford. We saw it in Glasgow, you know we've seen it over and over again.
“And I have to say I weep for the people of Rochdale, the Rochwellians as he calls them. Because with him there it's going to be about George George George.
“And really and truly, in a place with some of the worst unemployment figures, that the lowest education attainment, the highest number of street sleepers, do we really concentrate entirely on Gaza?
“It doesn't have to exclude everything else, but it doesn't have to overcome everything else.”
