LONDON: Senior left wing political rebel George Galloway lost parliamentary seat In the elections held in the UK on Friday, Labour Party candidate In a town in northern England Rochdale.
Galloway had been in office for just four months after winning a by-election triggered by the death of the town’s former MP.
Galloway’s pro-Palestinian campaign helped him win votes from the town’s Muslim community in March, and he was elected as an MP for a seventh time, representing the left-wing British Labour Party.
This victory came after the Labour Party withdrew its support for its candidate over an audio recording containing conspiracy theories about Israel.
Both the Conservatives and Labour have said they want the conflict in Gaza to stop, but have also backed Israel’s right to defend itself, angering some among the 3.9 million Muslims who make up 6.5% of the UK population.
Galloway criticised Labour’s support for Israel against Hamas during the by-election campaign he won in March.
But this time he lost to Labour candidate Paul Waugh, a former political journalist who grew up in the town and had previously worked for Britain’s Independent and Evening Standard newspapers.
Galloway, 69, was a former Labour MP before being expelled from the party in 2003 for criticising then-Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war.
He was already a controversial name at the time.
He was criticized for meeting with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 1994 and saying, “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your tirelessness.”
Her fame peaked in 2006 when she appeared as a cat on a reality TV show.