04 March 2024 , 16:08
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George Galloway has threatened to oust Angela Rayner as an MP by standing a candidate against her.
The controversial left-wing firebrand, who was sworn in as the new MP for Rochdale on Monday, claimed he has 15,000 supporters in the Deputy Labour Leader's constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne and will be able to “vitally affect” her chances of re-election.
Ms Rayner has served as the MP for the Greater Manchester seat since 2015. At the last election in 2019, she gained more than 18,544 votes - winning a majority of 4,263. Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Mr Galloway said he will be putting candidates up at the general election in constituencies across the country, declaring: “We will either win or we’ll make sure that Keir Starmer doesn’t win.”
He continued: “Angela Rayner has a parliamentary majority of around 3,000. There are around 15,000 supporters of my view in her constituency so we'll be putting a candidate up against her, either a Workers Party candidate or more likely an independent candidate that we support, and that will vitally affect the election of the Labour Deputy Leader.”
Angela Rayner has served as the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015 (Getty Images)The leader of the Workers Party of Britain also used the press conference to urged Jeremy Corbyn to stop “procrastinating” and join with a new socialist party. Mr Galloway warned the ex-Labour leader, who is formally blocked from standing for his former party, that “time was running out”.
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"If he was here now, I would say to him, ‘You saw what happened [in Rochdale]. Set up, announce an alliance of the remaining socialists in the country. You lead it and I’ll support it and let’s go," he told the left-wing YouTube channel Not the Andrew Marr Show.
Mr Galloway took his seat in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon after his shock by-election victory in Rochdale last week. He pledged allegiance to the King as part of the swearing-in ceremony all MPs are required to do. He was accompanied by Alba Party MP Neale Hanvey and Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House, as his sponsors.
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He made clear earlier that morning he is not looking to make friends as he returned to Parliament after being ousted as an MP in 2015. As he was approached by reporters on his drive into Westminster, he said he had always "loved the building" of Parliament before adding: "The people in it, not quite so much."
Mr Galloway, who was expelled from Labour after being found to have brought the party into disrepute in 2003, declared “this is for Gaza” as he won the Rochdale by-election in the early hours of Friday. The ex-Labour and Respect MP, who now leads the Workers Party of Britain, vowed to disrupt Labour's bid for power and threatened to stand candidates against it in up to 50 seats across the country at the general election.
The Rochdale by-election was triggered following the death last month of sitting Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd, who had a majority of 9,668 votes at the last election. But Mr Starmer's party withdrew its support for its new candidate Azhar Ali after a recording emerged of him suggesting Israel deliberately allowed its citizens to be killed so it could invade Gaza.