At the election, Labour easily retained the seat; Galloway came a distant third with 5.7% of the vote. "[266] Chambers Solicitors' conduct was the subject of a warning from the SRA a year later. [378] Gayatri (born c. 1984) is an anthropologist, born in the Netherlands of Indonesian descent, who works as a consultant for a Dutch research firm. In 1994, after Smith died, Galloway declined to cast a vote in the leadership election (one of only three MPs to do so). We don't want any Israeli goods, we don't want any Israeli services, we don't want any Israeli academics coming to the university or the college, we don't even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford even if any of them had thought of doing so. "[52] He ended his speech with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability. [336], Galloway's argument against independence was based on a defence of "class" over "nationality". Galloway accused her of lying about her forced marriage which had been the subject of an open letter written by Shah and released to the media after her selection as a candidate. The Corbyn period of leadership was the period which should once and for all kill off the myth that with a ‘socialist’ at its head the Labour party can deliver for working people. [262][265] Eric Heinze, Professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London, noted that an editor of the Media Lens website had sent a tweet to Freeman asking if she could provide evidence for her claim that Galloway is antisemitic. [330], He has been an advocate for the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez and, in his Fidel Castro Handbook, for the former Cuban leader. Standing as a candidate for a place on the Labour Party National Executive Committee in 1986, in a large field of 18 candidates, Galloway finished in 16th place. [...] They created the conditions in the Arab countries and in some European countries to stampede Jewish people out of the countries that they had been living in for many hundreds of years and stampede them into the Zionist state. Israel is doing what America wants it to do and to argue otherwise is to go down the dark tunnel of racist antisemitism". Apart from their decades of Euro-skepticism, the Labour leaders are not stupid. Already there are clear signs of fresh attacks on what remains of workers’ rights. But if peaceful change is not possible, then violent change is inevitable. Their plan for a second referendum has foundered on jagged rocks. [30] His deputy at the charity, Simon Stocker, recalled: "If you went into a fight with George, you knew you would never walk out with a win. newspaper archive. [296], In July 2016, Galloway endorsed Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. Galloway was elected with majorities of 16,643 and 12,014 votes respectively. “Why would you leave a union with whom you have more than 300 years of common experience, a common language and a gigantic market for your goods and services?… Why would you do that in order to hook up with Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria … with which you have absolutely nothing in common, either historically, culturally linguistically or economically?” (George Galloway brilliantly breaks down what will happen if Scotland leaves the UK by Svar Nanan-Sen, Daily Express, 23 December 2019). [171] A third Viva Palestina convoy began travelling at the end of 2009. [224], Galloway later claimed on his Twitter feed that he had been "misled", writing that "Christ Church never informed us that the debate would be with an Israeli. What is desperately needed by workers is a return to class politics; the abandoning of the ‘stakeholder engagement’ with capitalism and the return to fighting it. "[196], In October 2013, the Total Politics magazine published an interview with Galloway in which he admitted: "I like elections more than I like serving", and said that he found being an MP was "2% terrifying, and 98% tedium. [368] [34] The official history of War on Want comments about Galloway that "even though the problems were not all of his own making, his way of dealing with them heightened tensions". There is no divorce payment, if Boris holds his nerve. The newspaper claimed to have found documents in the Iraqi national oil corporation showing that Galloway received (through an intermediary) some of the profits arising from the sale of 19.5 million barrels (3,100,000 m³) of oil. [348] Galloway's presence at the rally prompted some of those present to leave. We should have nothing whatsoever to do with them. I’m not responsible for the leadership of Press TV". [262] Some who had re-tweeted Freeman's comment were then sent a letter from Chambers Solicitors, acting for Galloway, asking for an apology and £5,000 plus Value Added Tax (then levied at 20%) to cover costs incurred by the letter. The 64-year-old, who also sat as an MP for his Respect party, has thrown his weight behind the hardline Brexiteer for "one time only". [354], After Press TV lost its Ofcom licence in 2012, according to Galloway, the Iranian broadcaster owed him £40,000, leading to his company Miranda Media entering compulsory liquidation in 2013 because of unpaid tax. “This shows that this right-wing and authoritarian Tory government sees transport workers as the enemy, not stakeholders.” (Boris Johnson has issued declaration of war on railway workers, unions warn by Marcus Barnett, Morning Star, 17 December 2019). All rights reserved. The Daily Telegraph did not attempt to claim justification (where the defendant seeks to prove the truth of the defamatory reports): "It has never been the Telegraph's case to suggest that the allegations contained in these documents are true". [152] However, the Committee concluded, in the main body of the report: we agree with the Commissioner that there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Oil for Food Programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Mr Galloway's connivance, to fund the campaigning activities of the Mariam Appeal. Among the claims is that there is new evidence to suggest that the Mariam Appeal, a children's leukaemia charity founded by Galloway, was in fact used to conceal oil payments. According to a report in The Times, after the letter was released under the Freedom of Information Act, Galloway falsely asserted that the appeal "received no money from Iraq".[63]. [143], It emerged in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme in 2010 that the Islamic Forum of Europe, which advocates sharia law, had been involved in campaigning for Galloway in the Bethnal Green constituency. Both the Labour and Respect candidates were given police protection. I am a revolutionary and I support the armed struggle where there is no alternative. [141], During the BBC's election night coverage, Jeremy Paxman asked Galloway about whether he was happy to have removed one of the few black women in parliament, He replied: "I don't believe that people get elected because of the colour of their skin. "[282], It emerged in January 2017 that Galloway's reimbursed expense claim for the rent of his constituency office in Bradford West has been forwarded by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to the Metropolitan Police, which was then at the early assessment stage. [374] With Husseini, who is originally from Lebanon, Galloway had two sons.[39][376]. He instigated legal action against the newspaper, which was heard in the High Court on 14 November 2004. Unfortunately for the former MP, he accidentally tagged into his tweet a parody Brexit Party account. Nearly 70 percent of Labour-held parliamentary seats voted Brexit. However, on 20 June 2003, the Monitor reported[101] that its own investigation had concluded that the documents were sophisticated forgeries, and apologised. 13 August 2020, 2:19pm. "[32][33] An internal investigation,[32] and later, an independent auditor, both cleared him of the accusation of any misuse of funds,[34] although he did repay £1,720 in contested expenses. The intention was to raise awareness of the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of other Iraqi children, due to poor health conditions and lack of suitable medicines and facilities, and to campaign for the lifting of the Iraq sanctions that many maintained were responsible for that situation. "If the Tories sell them out to the EU, there will be hell to pay at the ballot box.". But he is fearful over the outcome in negotiations on fisheries, adding "taking back control" is a "really big issue" for Scottish fishermen. ", A vote for the 5th Column Euro-fanatics in the The EPLP and the PLP would empower the enemy within. Follow him on Twitter @georgegalloway. [18], After a trip to Beirut, Lebanon during 1977, Galloway became a passionate supporter of Palestine, stating during his libel case against The Daily Telegraph in 2004 that "barely a week after my return I made a pledge, in the Tavern Bar in Dundee's Hawkhill District, to devote the rest of my life to the Palestinian and Arab cause. After a whole life in the anti-imperialist cause and as the father of two Arab and two Indonesian children, I too had apparently become a racist by backing Leave. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, in an addendum to the report, concluded that there was no evidence that Galloway gained any personal benefit from either the former Iraqi administration, or from the Oil-for-Food Programme, but admitted that some documents had been unavailable to him. I’m not responsible for the government of Ahmedinijad. [114] Tariq Aziz was said to have told the investigators that oil had been allocated in the names of two of Galloway's representatives, Buhan Al-Chalabi and Fawaz Zureikat. Reportedly, the owed payment amounts to £100,000, although Galloway disputed this in February 2016. We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. On 5 May 1977, he contested his first election campaign in the Scottish district elections, but failed to hold the safe Labour Gillburn ward in Dundee being defeated by the independent Bunty Turley. Sturgeon said the votes for the SNP were an indication of the Scottish people’s desire to break away from the UK after she built her campaign on a pledge to hold a second referendum on independence. [230] These remarks were criticised by Marc Goldberg, writing for The Times of Israel: "By identifying them as Jews, rather than by their chosen atheist ideology, Galloway makes it clear that the attempt by Jews to shed their Jewish skin and join the global brotherhood of the workers failed. [342][343][344], Galloway has criticised Britain's close ties with Saudi Arabia and British involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. Express. This stretched as far as me, by the way! "The betrayal of #Brexit can be halted in its tracks by a sweeping victory for @TheBrexitPartly I believe that will happen.