George Galloway Loses Seat in Rochdale 4 Months After By-Election Victory

Labour won Rochdale back from the Workers’ Party leader George Galloway, who won the seat four months ago in a by-election dominated by the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza. On Feb. 29 Mr. Galloway, a long-time supporter of the Palestinian cause, won the seat from Labour with almost 40 percent of the vote. The by-election was caused by the death of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd, but it then emerged that the candidate chosen to replace him, Azhar Ali, had told a meeting he believed Israel had allowed Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks to happen as a pretext to invade Gaza. Labour pulled out of supporting Mr. Ali, who ended up winning only 2,402 votes....