Labour should NOT fear George Galloway - he is a monster and absurd, blasts Bill Rammell

Galloway won Rochdale in the recent by-election because there was no officially endorsed Labour candidate, and because he was not scrutinised. He won with his trusted and successful strategy of fomenting hatred and division within Muslim communities and appealing to the white working class with a socially conservative agenda.

We have been here before. In 2005 Galloway won Bethnal Green and Bow, a constituency with a large Muslim population. He immediately lost it at the next election. In 2012 Galloway won Bradford West, another constituency with a large Muslim population. He again immediately lost it at the next election. He can pull his trick once in a community-he is then scrutinised, exposed and defeated. The same will happen in Rochdale.

What follows a Galloway victory is publicity, but coming with that-exposure of the ugly, malign, extremist agenda he stands for. That is now happening again following the Rochdale by-election.

People are being reminded that in Rochdale he delivered different leaflets to houses dependent on whether it was a Muslim or a white household. Why do you do that unless you are intent on sowing fear and division? People are being reminded that he actually urged the Scots to vote Conservative in the 2019 General Election.

This from the so-called radical Socialist! People are being reminded of his sickening adulation for despotic hardmen the world over, whether it is Bashar al-Asad in Syria, Vladmir Putin in Russia or Sadam Hussein in Iraq. Remember Galloway visiting Bagdad and saluting Sadam-the torturer who killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims in his country and gassed the Muslim Iraqi Kurds in Halajba-and saying publicly to Sadam, ”I salute your strength, your courage, your indefatigability. I can honestly say there was not a single person I know who did not want me to send you warm, fraternal greetings.” These are the words of a man whose moral compass has been destroyed.

People are being reminded as well not of his critique of the war in Gaza, but his blinkered, one-sided hatred and aversion to Israel. This is the man, when challenged in America in a public meeting by a prominent Israeli, said “I do not debate with Israeli’s”. Such bigotry is sure to bring about peace in the Middle East-NOT. And people are being reminded that Galloway is a crude sexist and misogynist who once said, “I mean, not everyone (women) needs to be asked prior to each insertion.” They are being reminded that he said in 2002,” The disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life”.

Oh, and they are also being reminded of when Galloway nibbled from actress Rula Lenska’s hand on TV whilst pretending to be a cat.

In short when Galloway is not a monster, he is totally absurd. And eventually the overwhelming majority of people get that. And that is why Labour should not fear him.

But any of us who want to see this wretched Conservative Government defeated should recognise Galloway for what he is. A Tory enabler.

He showed that when he urged the Scots to vote Tory in 2019. He showed it arriving at Westminster when he talked of beating Labour, and of his party’s intervention stopping Labour from winning.

The man is a monster. He is absurd. And he is actually very content with the Tories continuing in power. Which is why Labour should not fear him, because a clear majority are most certainly not content with that.

Bill Rammell is a former Labour MP and Minister and a former University Vice Chancellor.