Can George Galloway win in Rochdale?

George Galloway has a track record of pulling off stunning by-election victories over Labour. What are the chances he can do the same in Rochdale, where a by-election takes place on the 29th February.

It’s good to see you and thank you for having the time to come on because obviously you’re busy with the the rdale by election I just really wanted to know um and I’m sure everyone here wants to know what’s your feeling on rdale having gone there and looked been around

Starting up your campaign obviously the launch isn’t till Tuesday officially but you’ve had a look around and spoken to people what do you think the prospects of a victory are for you well uh the launch isn’t even happened yet uh and yet it feels like the closing stages of

The the 2012 Bradford West byelection uh which I won also on the 29th of the month uh which I uh will hope to replicate uh in rosdale on the 29th of this month uh all kinds of people uh from all parts of the community are literally flocking uh to the colors uh

The going out on the street is problematic if you’re in a hurry to get anywhere uh because every single person uh knows who I am every single person knows that there’s a byelection and every single person is looking forward very much to using that byelection uh to

Send a shot across the whole world a shot across the bows of the kir starmer labor party that low key was so eloquently describing there sending a shot across the bows of Rishi sunak uh the uh Inky fingered Clark of Empire posing as Britain’s prime minister and

To send a shot that will be heard in Palestine itself and uh everyone’s acutely aware of the ability that uniquely on the 29th they have uh of course course they’re all on the protests of course they’re all flying the flags of course they’re all boycotting McDonald’s and Starbucks and

All the rest but they have a unique ability uh to go even further than a protest or a boycott they have the unique ability to alter uh the uh political situation in Britain the mail on Sunday uh this very day although you’ve got to pay to read it we put it

On we showed that the the picture yeah the whole thing they’re scared aren’t they I I I haven’t read it because you’d have to pay the mail uh to do so uh but uh it’s from what I can see uh indicating just the importance of this

Byelection not just to K starmer but to Rishi sunak the government and even the possibility uh of an early general election so Stakes could hardly be higher they were very high by the way in Batley and spin I got 21.9% of the vote in that byelection if

I’d got 1% more then K starmer would no longer be the leader of the labor party just think about that yeah I mean that that’s the thing the margins are quite fine on these things especially I would suspect the turnout is has been low people are not enthusiastic for the two main parties

Are they I mean they they’re not going to get a great turnout so if you can get even in the general election brisban in the rosdale constituency the turnout was just 60% uh now if you look at the turnouts in your own constituencies and around the country and the national average

That indicates the level of alienation in Rochdale which has effectively been relegated from the national scene even their football team uh has dropped out of the leagues uh because uh of underinvestment and so on the same is true of the town as a whole uh the first time I spoke in

Rochdale was almost 25 years ago and I remember very well vividly going to a a wonderful bustling market after the speech that I gave uh in an early afternoon that market no longer exists uh we’re talking boarded up shops we’re talking Desolation Row we’re talking levels of deprivation far higher than

Should be the case of a town 20 minutes from Manchester late last night I was in the center of Manchester a bustling Metropolis one of the world’s greatest cities and 20 minutes away is Rochdale which can uh be said to be uh Bleak House in this uh in this comparison and that’s

What the people uh are alienated from we have we have a a council that spends 20 million pounds on its own town hall but can’t afford a bucket of tar uh to fill potholes so large at dog could go to sleep quite safely in them uh through

The night uh the the priorities of the so-called labor Council and the priorities of uh the local political class have alienated the people so it was Tinder dry waiting for a spark and this byelection and our candidacy is looking like it is that spark what and and you know just so

People know how they can contribute and help your campaign um I believe the registration cut off date is the 13th is that right that’s our uh priority now uh 12th of February in fact our prority is to uh have a registration drive because of course with alienation always comes

Low levels of registration and labor like it that way uh the labor Council would prefer if nobody was registered to vote or next to nobody uh so we’re on a big registration drive people can help us with that uh but there’s campaign activities going on day and night uh

Rain hail shine uh in Rochdale and the uh headquarters is where the launch is tomorrow evening at uh sorry Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. and it’s in C street it’s uh Suzuki car dealership can’t miss it it’s the biggest thing in that street uh it’s within ey shot of the labor

Campaign rooms uh and uh I’m glad to say they’re already pretty sick at the level of bustling activity uh that’s going on in our rooms which Compares very vividly indeed with theirs uh quite a lot of the labor members in Rochdale have suddenly caught covid and retired to their beds

Uh for the next three four weeks uh and I’m quite pleased with that means that labor has to bus paid people counselors counselors staffs MPS MP staffs uh to do the campaigning for them so I I can’t even imagine how it must be difficult as

A labor um canvasser or or you know door kner to to be asked you know what about genocide I mean it’s not a very they haven’t got a very they’re not going to have a very easy ride when they go anywhere are they not many kids know the

Word genocide except in Rochdale and I suspect we’ll find this in many other places when the general election does come uh every child on a bike is shouting genocide labor at the labor MPS and counselors and they cannot deny that uh I have seen it with my own eyes I saw

It just yesterday afternoon in the central wart kids racing back and forward on their bikes shouting excuse me shouting genocide at Labor officials as they walk around the kids in Rochdale know what genocide is they’ve been watching it on Snapchat on WhatsApp uh on Instagram on Twitter on Facebook

They’ve been watching it for uh 100 and 20 days which is a long time in the life of a young person and they started off unable to quite believe what they were looking at and they’re now boiling with rage and that’s true from the oldest person you meet to the youngest kid that

You meet um I’m one of those that uh were skeptical about the reduction of the voting age to 16 uh until this byelection I I wish we could reduce the voting age to 12 and we’d be looking at a landslide yeah well they do they speak

The truth they don’t have any kind they don’t get uh brainwashed by anyone do they CH younger people seem to see right through what’s happening that’s right all sorry all the no I’m just thinking of careerism have not descended on their eyes and they cannot pretend that something isn’t happen when they

Know that it is yeah yeah definitely I I I really want to um get as many people to to help you because I think in in my mind that that what we call the left has been demoralized for and and in a bit of a trauma after what happened to Jeremy and

What’s happened with everyone else who’s been called anti-semitic and smeared left right and Center or left left and left um all these people have felt demoralized we’ve seen them on this show we hear them on this show this could be the time that we get our morale up again

And just in time for the general election I mean that’s part of it isn’t it it’s getting our spirits up again yes it’s time to get the Electoral show back on the road uh recapture the spirit of 2017 uh when Jeremy Corbin took much of

The country by storm uh and came so very close uh to becoming prime minister although we now know from Margaret hodj uh who inexplicably continues uh to be allowed to uh say these things uh that uh she and her fellows did everything that they could to sabotage their own

Part’s electoral victory in 2017 and she adds for the first time if Jeremy had won they would have brought the government down immediately uh by defection and voting against uh the their own party in a motion of confidence um but nonetheless uh Corbin came so very close the spirit the Alan

That was abroad at that time is being recaptured in the Rochdale byelection and uh people should get there and feel it themselves because it will benefit them as well as benefiting the campaign and it will give hope to people all over the country because there are all kinds of independent candidates now emerging

Uh in ilford in bethor green and I’m sure in many other places there will be independent candidates that will be encouraged by a victory here to believe that they too can win a victory and who knows then what the Electoral Fallout the makeup of the House of Commons at

That time will be and uh with a bit of luck uh will have a hung Parliament and myself and these independent members of parliament might have a disproportionate uh say in what happens next uh just as a just as an act of Interest I mean what we I think the same

Hung Parliament is the ideal scenario but would would you think PR is the way forward after that that since I’ve been campaigning for that since the 1970s I I actually told Tony Blair to his face and Gordon Brown in his ear that this was the time the landslide labor victory was the time

To introduce proportional representation I I told them both that the one of the takeaways from it will be that the Tores will never form a majority government again I didn’t add that it would allow uh genuinely socialist parties uh to enter Parliament for the first time although of course I subsequently did

That in 2005 and again in 2012 and I hope in 2024