WORKERS’ PARTY OF BRITAIN MP George Galloway has lost his seat in the English constituency of Rochedale, just four months after he was elected in a hotly contested by-election in February this year.

Galloway failed to appear at the count centre when it was announced that he had lost his seat to Labour candidate Paul Waugh. Waugh, the former deputy political editor of the UK newspaper The Independent, thanked Galloway in his absence. 

Galloway won the seat in a by-election earlier this year called as a result of the death of the constituency’s Labour MP Tony Lloyd. 

In a contest dominated by the war in Gaza, Galloway took almost 40% of the vote in the by-election, with a campaign that centred the conflict in an attempt to target the Muslim vote in the constituency. He was helped by the Labour Party withdrawing their support for their candidate, Azhar Ali, after he was recorded saying that Israel had deliberately allowed Hamas’ October 7 attack to occur.

In the last four months, Galloway has found himself at the centre of a number of controversies, which may have affected his standing in the constituency. In June, he said that he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin more than Labor leader Keir Starmer, while in May he came under fire for saying that children should not be taught that gay relationships are “normal”.

This result has left the Workers’ Party with no elected MPs. However, taking to X after his defeat, Galloway said “ we are here to stay in Rochdale”.

“We will field a full slate of council candidates, establish a full-time office there, campaign to re-open the Maternity Ward and A&E, and keep up the pressure on Labour in the town”