George Galloway

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale since the 2024 by-election.

Galloway grew up in Charleston, Dundee, and attended Charleston Primary and then Harris Academy, in the city's West End, an academically-selective and non-denominational state school, which became comprehensive in 1973.

Galloway played for the school football team as well as for West End United U12s, Lochee Boys Club U16s and St Columba's U18s.

After becoming the youngest ever chair of the Scottish Labour Party in 1981, he was general secretary of the charity War on Want from 1983 until his election as MP for Glasgow Hillhead at the 1987 general election.

From 1987 to 2010, and from 2012 to 2015, Galloway served as MP for four constituencies, first for the Labour Party and then from 2005 for the Respect Party, which he led from 2013 until its dissolution in 2016.

Galloway was born in Dundee, Scotland.

His outspoken opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq led the Labour Party to expel him for "bringing the party into disrepute".

Galloway was accused of receiving illicit payments from Iraq's regime, partly from money diverted from the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program.

After being expelled from Labour, in 2004 Galloway joined the Respect Party.

He was elected as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2005 general election.

He defended himself at a 2005 US Senate hearing.

He supported Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.

Galloway hosted the TalkRadio show The Mother of All Talk Shows from 2006 to 2010 and from 2016 until his dismissal in 2019.

He then moved the show to social media platforms.

After losing in neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse in 2010, he was re-elected at the 2012 Bradford West by-election; he lost this seat at the 2015 general election.

He was a presenter on Russian state media outlet Russia Today (RT) from 2013 to 2022, and was a presenter on Iranian state media outlet Press TV.

Galloway was born in Dundee, Scotland to a Roman Catholic family.

His father, George Galloway Sr., was a Scottish trade unionist, while his mother, Sheila O'Reilly, was of Irish descent.

Initially raised in Lochee, Dundee, he has described himself as "born in an attic in a slum tenement in the Irish quarter of Dundee, which is known as Tipperary".

His father began as an electrician, before studying a degree to become an electromechanical engineer at NCR.

After being made redundant, he retrained as a teacher.

His mother was a cleaner, and then a factory worker.

According to Galloway, his father was patriotic, while his mother had Irish nationalist sympathies, and was critical of perceived British pretensions in the world.

He took his mother's side in arguments, and has been a long-time supporter of Sinn Féin and Irish reunification.

David Morley, his biographer, has written that people who knew both father and son have said that they had Marxist opinions common in the local Labour Party movement of the time.

In 2016 he campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union, later supporting Nigel Farage's Brexit Party in the 2019 European Parliament election.

He opposes Scottish independence and founded the British unionist alliance All for Unity, which received 0.9 per cent of votes in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Galloway blamed the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the West and has been accused of spreading pro-Russian disinformation.

In a 2016 New Internationalist interview, Galloway speculated that an incident of sexual abuse from a colonel, which he suffered when he was 12, caused a "lifelong fear of being gay and this led me into ostentatious, rapacious heterosexual promiscuity".

According to Galloway, he grew a moustache at the age of 15, and refused to shave it off when his headmaster objected.

He unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate in the 2017 and 2019 general elections.

Galloway then founded the Workers Party of Britain and stood unsuccessfully for the party at the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election.

Galloway won the 2024 Rochdale by-election with 39.7 per cent of the vote.

Galloway describes himself as both a socialist and socially conservative.

He is a staunch critic of Israel and Zionism, and supports the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

He was involved in the Viva Palestina aid convoys to the Gaza Strip.

Previously he supported Ba'athist Iraq and travelled there to meet regime officials.

He caused controversy for reportedly praising Saddam Hussein, which he denied.

Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal to campaign against sanctions on Iraq.

He has been the leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019.