“Galloway only won because Labour didn’t stand a candidate,” Starmer said. “Obviously we will put up a first-class candidate, a unifier, before the voters in Rochdale at the general election.”

Galloway’s victory means that from next week, parliament will once again be home to one of the most eloquent orators from the left wing of UK politics, who will clearly use his position to raise his opposition to Israel’s operation in Gaza, which, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people.

Galloway had appeared regularly on Moscow’s state-backed network Russia Today, and declared tens of thousands of pounds in income from the broadcaster in 2014 and 2015, the New York Times reported.

Galloway has also appeared on Press TV, the state-funded news channel of Iran.

The 10-point program of Galloway’s new party pledges to halt “imperialist wars” and financial dominance, and includes calling for the UK’s withdrawal from NATO.

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“We will continue to campaign for Britain to leave NATO as a clear and present danger to the security of the British population and seek new collective security arrangements centred on the protection of peoples and not of states or industries,” the party’s manifesto states.

He also recently lauded Tucker Carlson’s widely criticised interview with Vladimir Putin, saying it challenged the narrative that portrays him negatively as “Vlad the Mad or Bad,” Politico reported.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish community organisation in the UK, said that Galloway’s victory marks “a dark day” for the UK’s Jewish community.

“George Galloway is a demagogue and conspiracy theorist who has brought the politics of division and hate to every place he has ever stood for parliament,” it said in a statement.

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The constituency of Rochdale has traditionally been a Labour seat. Galloway said that his Workers Party of Britain will contest similar seats in constituencies where there is a sizeable Muslim minority in the upcoming general election, which must take place within the next 11 months.

The governing Conservative Party, which hasn’t historically performed well in Rochdale, came in third and voiced worries that Galloway’s victory will stoke tensions in the town and beyond.

In an unexpected statement on Friday evening, Sunak made a call for unity while claiming that Galloway was a “candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah”.

Linking his victory with other divisive developments on the UK political scene since Hamas’ attack and Israel’s subsequent response, Sunak said “our democracy itself is a target” for extremists, noting how some lawmakers in parliament don’t feel safe in their homes and that local political meetings have been stormed.

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“In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality,” he said.

“What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence. Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.”

He urged those joining the almost weekly mass protests against Israel’s offensive in central London and other towns and cities in the UK to do so respectfully, and said that his government would support police.

Galloway poured scorn on a prime minister warning about democracy after he’d won an election. He dismissed Sunak’s central charge, telling Sky News that he does “not respect the prime minister at all” and that “millions and millions of people in this country despise the prime minister”.

It’s not the first time that Galloway has created a stir since he began his political career a half-century ago as a firebrand left-wing Labour member of parliament for a constituency in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 1994, he faced widespread opposition for meeting then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and telling him: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.”

In 2004, he returned to parliament as a lawmaker for the anti-war Respect Party after a byelection in a heavily Muslim seat in east London, but was defeated in the general election the following year.

He was elected again in a byelection in 2012, but lost his seat once more in the election of 2015.

As well as being an eloquent advocate for his political views, which saw him take US senators to task in 2005, Galloway has also courted ridicule, most notably in 2006 when he impersonated a cat in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother.

AP with Chris Zappone

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