There is a cardboard bowl filled with urine sitting in the middle of George Galloway’s by-election campaign headquarters.
The former Labour MP turned populist renegade has based himself in the garage of a second-hand car dealership at the edge of Rochdale town centre and one of the mechanics working overnight had been unable to access the toilets.“By-elections are never glamorous,” says an aide, hastily pouring the liquid down a drain.
It may not be the lap of luxury but it is from this base that Galloway hopes to reinsert himself into parliamentary politics come the by-election on February 29.
• Rochdale by-election: list of candidates
Sitting in an office above the showroom, he is in high spirits having the night before been handed a major fillip by Labour’s disowning of its candidate Azhar Ali, over leaked antisemitic remarks about the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“If you’d written this script, it would have been rejected as far-fetched, that here I am in a by-election and it’s Labour that is exploding in an antisemitism row,” said Galloway, who throughout his 40 years in politics has been an outspoken opponent of Israel.
Up until now, Galloway, 69, who is standing for the Workers’ Party, had only an outsider’s chance of winning this election. Now he is a frontrunner.
Referring to himself as “Gaza George Galloway’’ in his campaign literature, he has so far concentrated his efforts solely on Rochdale’s Muslim community and he will hope to sweep up much of Labour’s 9,600 vote majority.
Despite Labour’s strong majority in the seat, there was apprehension among insiders over the party’s ability to retain it even before Ali’s removal.
Galloway has in the past proved himself a fly in the ointment of Labour’s election plans. After being expelled for his criticism of Tony Blair over the Iraq War, he went on to take two seats from Labour, Bethnal Green & Bow in 2005 and Bradford West in 2012, both of which had large Muslim populations.
Muslims make up just under a third of Rochdale’s population and there has been a fear that the contest will expose the growing rift within the party over the struggle to retain support among Muslim voters while regaining the confidence of British Jews.
• Why the left has a problem with antisemitism
Since October 7, dozens of councillors around the former textiles towns of Lancashire have quit the party over its stance on Gaza. Labour now supports a “sustainable ceasefire”, however Starmer has faced criticism for not calling for it earlier.
This week too, footage emerged showing Rosie Choudhury, a former Labour councillor for Rochdale, describing Starmer as a “war criminal” at a meeting in the town.
Perhaps more worrying for the party, however, is the feeling among certain voters that Labour has presided over a period of decline in Rochdale.
Since 2010, Labour has both run the council and represented the constituency in parliament. During that time the town has been roiled by several scandals in which some of the most needy in society were let down by those in positions of authority.
• Keir Starmer has a Palestinian problem, but is he even listening?
A report last month found that the council and police had failed to properly investigate claims of widespread abuse against white working class teenage girls by an Asian grooming gang.
In 2020, a two-year-old boy, Awaab Ishak, died in his social housing flat from a respiratory condition caused by excessive mould, which his parents had repeatedly asked the housing association to fix.
It was here too in 2010 that Gordon Brown, then the prime minister, was caught describing a lifelong Labour voter, Gillian Duffy, as “a bigoted woman” after she challenged him on the economy and immigration.
If Brexit can be considered an expression of political disaffection, it is no surprise perhaps then that 60 per cent of those in Rochdale voted to leave the European Union.
For many younger people like Fesan Khalid, 26, Labour manifests all the malaises of an administration unchallenged for too long.
Speaking just before prayers outside Bilal Mosque, where days earlier Galloway had addressed a crowd of supporters, Khalid, a civil servant, said that he would be voting for the Workers’ Party.
“It isn’t about Palestine,” he said. “It’s about the fact that Labour run the council here like a family business, just looking out for each other all the time.”
He cited the case of Shakil Ahmed, deputy mayor, who was elected last year despite colleagues knowing that he had harassed a young woman over text messages, saying: “They are trying to bring Pakistani politics into Rochdale.”
Ali was nowhere to be found on Tuesday, having shut down his campaign office at the town’s Labour Club. Rules stipulate that a candidate can only be withdrawn from an election 19 days prior to voting, so his name will still appear on the ballot sheet. Labour has made clear that if he wins he will sit as an independent.
Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s Labour MP from 2010 to 2017 who was suspended from the party after a series of scandals, is standing for Reform UK, the party co-founded by Nigel Farage.
Cheryl Taylor, 49, a hairdresser, said that Ali’s withdrawal had left her “completely confused” by how to vote but said she would probably vote for Danczuk as it was “better the devil you know”.
“I’m not sure about any of them to be honest but if you’re voting for Galloway it’s a vote for Palestine,” she said. “What we really need around here is for someone to stick their hand up and fight for Rochdale.”
