Last night's by-election in Rochdale was an unusual one. From the get-go, the campaign was messy, bitter and chaotic.
The Labour Party withdrew support for its candidate Azhar Ali after he was accused of antisemitism and the Greens found themselves in a similar position with candidate Guy Otten after he made "regrettable" comments on X.
And overnight, Reform UK leader Richard Tice claimed the by-election was not truly “free or fair” due to the behaviour of the candidates. Tice described the campaign as having been mired by “disturbing scenes” including abuse and death threats.
But perhaps more unusual than the chaotic campaign were the results. In the early hours of this morning, George Galloway - representing the Workers' Party of Britain - stormed to victory. The Labour Party, which previously held the seat with a 10,000 majority, didn't even make it into the top three - despite Azhar Ali still being listed as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper.
Reform UK, which saw its best ever result at last month's Wellingborough by-election, also had a disappointing night, coming sixth after the Liberal Democrats
PA
Independent candidate David Tully stormed to second place, overtaking the Tories in second. Ex-Labour candidate Azhar Ali ended up in a humiliating fourth place.
Reform UK, which saw its best ever result at last month's Wellingborough by-election, also had a disappointing night, coming sixth after the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking to GB News in the wake of the victory, Galloway warned that Starmer has "woken up to his worst nightmare". But the Labour Party may not have been the only casualty - perhaps it might also end up being a nightmare for Richard Tice.
The new MP for Rochdale this morning said that he has 59 parliamentary candidates ready to go ahead of the next election.
Given the context of the campaign - and how prominent religious and foreign policy issues were to the way people voted - today's by-election cannot be seen as a bellwether for wider national feeling.
But if the Workers Party manages to repeat some of the success it saw last night, then it is likely to go some way to dividing voters looking for the 'protest vote' option.
With the first-past-the-post voting system in place, it's hard enough already for marginal parties to make a dent in seats at a general election.
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But even if Reform UK's goal is just to disrupt the Tory campaign - stealing votes and preventing them from beating Labour - the Workers Party could still have a detrimental impact on this.
If it chips away at enough Labour votes, in some cases, the two populist parties could end up cancelling each other out.
For months now, Reform UK has been seen as the only main challenger to the mainstream political parties. But George Galloway's Workers Party might just try and steal some of that thunder.
