George Galloway

1954 -

photo credits: Wikimedia Commons

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member of Parliament (MP) for four constituencies, first for the Labour Party and later for the Respect Party, the latter of which he joined in 2004 and led from 2013 until its dissolution in 2016. Galloway was born in Dundee, Scotland. After becoming the youngest ever chair of the Scottish Labour Party in 1981, he was general secretary of the London-based charity War on Want from 1983 until his election as MP for Glasgow Hillhead (later Glasgow Kelvin) in the 1987 general election. In 2003, he was expelled from the Labour Party for bringing the party into disrepute over his prominent opposition to the Global War on Terror. Having stated he was "prepared" to stand as an independent MP before "considering his position and consulting the [anti-war] movement", Galloway, as a response to being expelled after his 36-year membership in the party, stated "I will definitely defend my position in parliament. I am not leaving politics."In 2004, Galloway became a member of the Respect Party, and then the party's leader by late 2013. Having decided not to seek re-election for Glasgow Kelvin, he stood for Respect in the 2005 general election for Bethnal Green and Bow, defeating the sitting Labour MP, Oona King. He served for one parliamentary term and did not contest the seat in the 2010 general election. He returned to the House of Commons for the 2012 Bradford West by-election, but lost his seat in the 2015 general election. He stood as the Respect candidate in the 2016 London mayoral election, finishing in seventh place with 1.4% of the vote. He stood as an independent candidate for Manchester Gorton in the 2017 general election and for West Bromwich East in the 2019 general election. Following the 2019 general election, he founded the Workers Party of Britain. He led All for Unity, a Scottish party that he founded to support British unionism in the face of rising support for Scottish independence and the Scottish National Party (SNP), into the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, where it captured 0.9% of the vote. Galloway testified to the United States Senate in 2005 over alleged illicit payments from the United Nations' Oil for Food Program against Ba'athist Iraq. Among other international issues, Galloway has voiced his Anti-Zionism and supports the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and was also involved in the Viva Palestina aid convoys to the Gaza Strip. He opposes India's role in the Kashmir conflict with Pakistan, and has voiced support for the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir. He supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election and during Corbyn's leadership of the party. In the 2016 EU membership referendum, he advocated a "Leave" vote, campaigning with the cross-party, pro-Brexit organisation Grassroots Out, while before the 2019 European Parliament election he announced on Twitter, "for one-time only", he would support Nigel Farage's Brexit Party. In 2022, Galloway said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was "not what I wanted", but blamed the invasion on western countries "pumping Ukraine full of NATO weapons", attracting criticism from other British political parties. Since 2006, Galloway has hosted the talk radio show The Mother of All Talk Shows. Source: Wikipedia (en)

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