Why a small special election in Rochdale, England, radiates chaos

If all had gone according to plan, Britain’s opposition Labor Party, which is polling high, would confidently emerge victorious in a special election (known in Britain as a by-election) for the Rochdale parliamentary district on Thursday. north of Manchester.

Instead, the battle has become a source of acute embarrassment for the party, and whoever comes out on top when the results are announced early on Friday morning will not represent Labor.

The party had to happen earlier this month reject his candidate due to anti-Semitic comments he made, but it was too late to replace him in the vote. In the wake of that debacle, the Rochdale election has become emblematic of the anger that has swept through British politics. about the war in Gaza.

With a general election looming, internal divisions over the conflict in the Middle East have caused tensions within both the Labor Party and the governing Conservatives.

And worse for Labor leader Keir Starmer, the favorite to win in Rochdale is George Galloway, according to oddsmakers. He is a die-hard left-wing rabble-rouser who was expelled from the Labor Party more than 20 years ago and is keen to get revenge in Rochdale.

What on earth happened to Labor in Rochdale?

Thursday’s elections were intended to replace Tony Lloyda respected Labor MP who had represented the district since 2017 but died earlier this year from blood cancer.

Labor chose Azhar Ali to succeed him as the party’s candidate, but then a recording emerged showing that he had claimed that Israel “allowed” Hamas to continue the October 7 attacks as a pretext to invade Gaza. (Mr Ali later issued a statement saying that he apologized “without reservation to the Jewish community for my comments which were deeply offensive, ignorant and false.”)

The episode was a setback for Mr Starmer, who has been trying to rid Labor of the anti-Semitism that has infected the party’s far left. under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. After initial hesitation, Mr Ali was removed from the Labor ticket.

But by the time Mr Starmer stood down against Mr Ali, it was too late to replace him. In fact, his name is still on the website moodalthough, if he wins the seat, Mr Ali would not represent Labor in Parliament (instead he would sit as an independent).

The result? A mess. In a district once thought likely to win, Labor is not even in the race.

Rochdale’s next lawmaker could be a controversial figure.

There may not be a formal Labor candidate in the race, but alongside Mr Ali are two former Labor lawmakers competing in a region whose proud history has recently been marred by scandals over child exploitation, poverty and deprivation.

One candidate is Simon Danczuk, who won Rochdale for Labor at the 2010 and 2015 general elections. He was suspended by the Labor Party in 2015 for sending explicit messages to a 17-year-old girl.

He apologized at the time for ‘inappropriate’ behavior and said he had been ‘stupid’, but he now dismisses the episode as ‘tabloid nonsense’. This time he is running for Reform UK, the far-right party that is the successor to the Brexit Party, once led by Nigel Farage, which campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union.

The other candidate is Mr Galloway, another former Labor MP, who is known for his fierce political rhetoric – and for the trademark fedora he likes to wear. The founder of Britain’s far-left Labor Party, Mr Galloway, was forced out of the Labor Party in 2003 over his criticism of the Iraq war.

At the time, he described Tony Blair, then Britain’s prime minister, and George W. Bush, then US president, as “wolves” and urged British troops to defy military orders, calling them illegal. Mr Galloway later won parliamentary seats in 2005 in Bethnal Green, east London, and in 2012 in Bradford West, for the Respect Party. In 2006 he appeared on Famous big brother in Britain, where at one point he surprised viewers role play as a cat and licking another participant’s hands.

If George Galloway wins, he will be a thorn in Labor’s side in Parliament.

In the Rochdale campaign, Mr Galloway has appealed directly to the district’s Muslim population, who make up around 30 per cent of the electorate, many of whom are angry about the war in Gaza. He was outspoken in his criticism of Mr Starmer, who has been described as a “top supporter of Israel” in one of Mr Galloway’s election leaflets. “Imagine the people of Rochdale coming together to overthrow the hated Labor leader,” it added.

That prospect may be fanciful, but if elected, Mr Galloway would likely do his best to be a thorn in Labor’s side and exploit internal tensions in the Middle East.

The one silver lining for Mr Starmer is that, with a general election expected later this year, whoever wins in Rochdale will soon face another battle for re-election if the victor wants to remain a lawmaker for more than a few months. And next time, that candidate will almost certainly face a Labor candidate who many analysts expect to win.