1. George Galloway was born on 16 August 1954 and is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer.
194 Facts About George Galloway
1. 2.
George Galloway has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party.
3.
From 1987 to 2010, from 2012 to 2015, and briefly in 2024, Galloway served as Member of Parliament for five different constituencies.
4.
George Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 due to his prominent opposition to the Iraq War.
5.
George Galloway joined the Respect Party in 2004, and was its leader from 2013 to 2016.
6.
George Galloway was elected as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2005 general election.
7.
George Galloway unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate at the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
8.
George Galloway then founded the Workers Party of Britain, and stood unsuccessfully for the party at the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election.
9.
George Galloway lost the seat at the 2024 general election.
10.
George Galloway describes himself as both a socialist and socially conservative.
11.
George Galloway travelled to Iraq to meet government officials in the 1990s.
12.
George Galloway caused controversy for praising Saddam Hussein at a 1994 meeting, which he denied.
13.
George Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal in 1998 to campaign against sanctions on Iraq.
14.
George Galloway was accused of receiving illicit payments from Iraq's government, partly from money diverted from the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program, defending himself at a 2005 United States Senate hearing.
15.
In 2014, George Galloway sustained injuries after being attacked by a Jewish convert due to his positions on Israel.
16.
George Galloway supported Jeremy Corbyn in his leadership of the Labour Party.
17.
George Galloway opposes Scottish independence, and founded the British unionist alliance All for Unity, which received 0.9 per cent of votes at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
18.
George Galloway hosted the TalkRadio show The Mother of All Talk Shows from 2006 to 2010 and from 2016 until his dismissal in 2019.
19.
George Galloway then moved the show to social media platforms.
20.
George Galloway was a presenter on Russian state media outlet RT from 2013 to 2022, and was a presenter on Iranian state media outlet Press TV.
21.
George Galloway's father began as an electrician, before studying a degree to become an electromechanical engineer at NCR.
22.
George Galloway's mother was a cleaner, and then a factory worker.
23.
George Galloway took his mother's side in arguments, and has been a long-time supporter of Sinn Fein and Irish reunification.
24.
George 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.
25.
George Galloway played for the school football team as well as for West End United U12s, Lochee Boys Club U16s and St Columba's U18s.
26.
George Galloway decided, at the age of 18, never to drink alcohol; the reason was originally derived from comments by his father, and he has described alcohol as having a "very deleterious effect on people".
27.
George Galloway joined the Labour Party Young Socialists aged 13, having falsely claimed to have been 15, and was still a teenager when he became secretary of the Dundee Labour Party.
28.
George Galloway became vice-chairman of the Labour Party in the City of Dundee and a member of the Scottish Executive Committee in 1975.
29.
George Galloway became the secretary organiser of the Dundee Labour Party in 1977, and at 26, was the youngest ever chairman of the Scottish Labour Party in March 1981, a post he held for a year, after holding the vice-chairman post over the previous year.
30.
In late 1981, in an interview for the Scottish Marxist, George Galloway supported the affiliation of the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Labour Party, in the same way as the Fabian Society does.
31.
In 1983, George Galloway attempted to stand for the safe Labour seat of Rhondda after the Welsh Transport and General Workers' Union and the National Union of Miners had both nominated him to succeed Alec Jones, who had died.
32.
George Galloway hoped to be selected in the newly created seat of Dunfermline East, where no incumbent was standing.
33.
George Galloway failed to be selected for either seat, with Rhondda selecting Allan Rogers, and Dunfermline East selecting future Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
34.
From November 1983 to 1987, George Galloway was the general secretary of War on Want, a British charity campaigning against poverty worldwide.
35.
At the 1987 general election, George Galloway was elected as the MP for Glasgow Hillhead gaining the seat for Labour from the SDP defeating Roy Jenkins with a majority of 3,251 votes.
36.
In September 1987, George Galloway was asked by a journalist about his relationship to a woman during the 1986 War on Want conference on the Greek island of Mykonos.
37.
George Galloway gained re-selection when challenged by Trish Godman in June 1989, but failed to get a majority of the electoral college on the first ballot.
38.
George Galloway assured his party there would be a "summer of peace and reconciliation" in his acceptance speech, but this did not happen.
39.
In 1994, after Smith died, George Galloway declined to cast a vote in the leadership election.
40.
George Galloway was unchallenged for the nomination for the 2001 general election.
41.
George Galloway was elected with majorities of 16,643 and 12,014 votes respectively.
42.
George Galloway opposed the 1991 Gulf War and was critical of the effect that the subsequent sanctions had on the people of Iraq.
43.
In January 1994, George Galloway faced some of his strongest criticism for a Middle Eastern trip, during which he met Saddam Hussein.
44.
At his meeting with the Iraqi president, George Galloway told Saddam Hussein,.
45.
George Galloway said that he was saluting the Iraqi people, rather than Saddam Hussein, and George Galloway's friend Anas Altikriti observed that this is how it was translated for Saddam.
46.
Shortly after his return, George Galloway was given a "severe reprimand" and "final warning" by the Labour Chief Whip, Derek Foster.
47.
George Galloway apologised for his conduct and undertook to follow future instruction from the whips.
48.
In 1998, George Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal which was intended, according to its website's welcome page in 1999, "to campaign against sanctions on Iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of Iraq".
49.
In 1999, George Galloway was criticised for spending Christmas in Iraq with Tariq Aziz, who was Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister at the time.
50.
George Galloway responded by stating that the expenses were incurred in his capacity as the appeal's chairman.
51.
George Galloway became the vice-president of the Stop the War Coalition in 2001.
52.
On 28 March 2003, George Galloway said in an interview with Abu Dhabi TV:.
53.
George Galloway said after his expulsion: "This was a politically motivated kangaroo court whose verdict had been written in advance in the best tradition of political show trials".
54.
George Galloway claimed that other MPs who opposed the war, such as Bob Marshall Andrews and Glenda Jackson, would soon be expelled, but no other MP was expelled from the Labour Party for opposing the Iraq War.
55.
Ian McCartney, Labour Party chairman at the time, said George Galloway was the only Labour MP who "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops".
56.
Tony Benn questioned why George Galloway strove to remain in the Labour Party despite calling its leadership a "blood-splattered, lying, crooked group of war criminals".
57.
George Galloway said Tony Blair and George W Bush had "far more blood on their hands" than the terrorists who carried out the bombings, and called President Bush the world's "biggest terrorist".
58.
George Galloway denied the claims and pointed to the nature of the discovery within an unguarded, bombed-out building as being questionable.
59.
George Galloway successfully sued the newspaper for libel.
60.
The Christian Science Monitor published a story on 25 April 2003, stating that it had documentary evidence that George Galloway had received "more than ten million dollars" from the Iraqi government.
61.
George Galloway said that money had been paid into the Mariam Appeal by Iraqi businessmen who had profited from the UN-run programme.
62.
George Galloway stated he had not benefited personally and that there was nothing illicit about the transaction:.
63.
Coleman's committee said that George Galloway received oil allocations worth 20 million barrels from 2000 to 2003.
64.
On 17 May 2005, the committee held a hearing on allegations that George Galloway received illicit payments from the Iraqi government through the Oil-for-Food Program.
65.
George Galloway countered the charges by claiming they were politically motivated and a "smokescreen".
66.
George Galloway accused Coleman and other pro-war politicians of covering up the "theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth".
67.
George Galloway reiterated his denial of the charges and asked the US Senate committee to charge him with perjury so that he could confront the charges in court.
68.
George Galloway said the investigation was an attempt to divert attention from the "pack of lies" that led to the Iraq invasion in 2003.
69.
The committee chairman, Paul Volcker, suggested that his investigation had further material about George Galloway which had not been published.
70.
George Galloway announced in December 2003 that he would not force a by-election and did not intend to contest the next general election in Glasgow.
71.
George Galloway chose not to challenge him, announcing this decision at the end of May 2004 in his Mail on Sunday column.
72.
George Galloway said at a hustings event that the Labour Government had been pursuing a "war on Muslims" while King said her stance against Saddam Hussein had been "principled".
73.
George Galloway received death threats from an offshoot of al-Muhajiroun.
74.
George Galloway was held by the group for about 20 minutes before the police arrived at the scene.
75.
In January 2006, George Galloway appeared on the fourth series of the reality TV programme Celebrity Big Brother for nearly three weeks.
76.
George Galloway wrote later that his activities "were actually the same stunts that BBC presenters and celebs get up for Children in Need".
77.
George Galloway faced a claim at the time from Hilary Armstrong, Labour's Chief Whip, that he should "respect his constituents, not his ego".
78.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, in an addendum to the report, concluded that there was no evidence that George Galloway gained any personal benefit from either the former Iraqi administration, or from the Oil-for-Food Programme, but admitted that some documents had been unavailable to him.
79.
George Galloway's suspension was not intended to be immediate, and he was given the opportunity to defend himself in front of the committee members in the House of Commons on 23 July 2007.
80.
Martin therefore named George Galloway, leading to the attending members voting to trigger his suspension from parliament that day rather than wait until after the summer recess as had been recommended.
81.
George Galloway did not seek re-election in Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2010 general election, fulfilling a pledge he made to only serve one parliamentary term in the constituency.
82.
George Galloway instead opted to stand in the neighbouring constituency of Poplar and Limehouse and received 8,160 votes coming third after the Labour and Conservative candidates.
83.
On 8 April 2009, George Galloway joined Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic to launch Viva Palestina US.
84.
The Foreign Ministry of Egypt released a statement reading: "George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not be allowed to enter into Egypt again".
85.
George Galloway described the result as a "Bradford spring" and said that it showed the "total rejection" by voters of the three leading political parties.
86.
The election campaign was marked by controversy, in particular over the role of sectarianism, Baradari networks, and allegations about rivals' lack of "Islamic values" Andrew Gilligan noted in The Daily Telegraph that George Galloway had won in wards with a predominantly white electorate as well as those with a majority Muslim population.
87.
In late 2013, George Galloway became Leader of the Respect Party.
88.
George Galloway was criticised for comments he made in August 2012 on the legal case involving Wikileaks' Julian Assange in a podcast released on YouTube.
89.
George Galloway subsequently lost his job as a columnist for Holyrood, a Scottish political magazine, for refusing to apologise for his remarks, and subject to a No platform policy by the National Union of Students.
90.
On 20 February 2013, George Galloway walked out of a publicised debate when he found out that his opponent had Israeli citizenship.
91.
George Galloway interrupted his opponent, Eylon Levy, a third-year PPE student, to ask whether he was an Israeli.
92.
George Galloway's behaviour was criticised by Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, and The Times.
93.
George Galloway's remarks drew sharp criticism from British politicians and Jewish leaders.
94.
West Yorkshire Police investigated two complaints to determine if George Galloway's words constituted hate speech.
95.
George Galloway was questioned under caution by the police and the matter was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.
96.
George Galloway subsequently criticised the police investigation, describing it as "an absolute and despicable attempt to curb my freedom of speech".
97.
On 13 October 2014, George Galloway abstained from a vote in the House of Commons formally recognising Palestine because the motion included the recognition of Israel as well.
98.
George Galloway accused her of lying about her forced marriage which had been the subject of an open letter written by Shah and released to the media after her selection as a candidate.
99.
George Galloway then produced what he said was her nikah, a Muslim marriage certificate.
100.
Ron McKay, George Galloway's spokesman, said that there was no dishonesty in gaining access to the document via an intermediary in Pakistan.
101.
At one point during the campaign, George Galloway tweeted a picture of Israelis waving Israeli flags with the caption "Thank you for electing Naz Shah".
102.
On 10 May 2015, George Galloway announced an intention to challenge the result, alleging that false statements and malpractice related to postal votes during the campaign meant that the result of the election should be set aside, but did not do so.
103.
In July 2015, George Galloway endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.
104.
In July 2016, George Galloway endorsed Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.
105.
On 14 December 2019, George Galloway launched the Workers Party of Britain, which describes itself as "economically radical with an independent foreign policy" and "unequivocally committed to class politics".
106.
On 16 November 2020 George Galloway announced his intention to stand in the expected by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, after sitting MP Margaret Ferrier was accused of breaching COVID-19 regulations, for which she faces a possible recall petition.
107.
George Galloway led All for Unity in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election and announced his intention to vote for the Conservative Party on the constituency vote, and for his own party on the list vote.
108.
On 27 May 2021, George Galloway announced his intention to stand for the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election.
109.
In mid-May 2022, George Galloway, who ran in neighbouring Batley and Spen in a 2021 by-election, posted a video saying that he might "put my own hat in the ring" and run in the 2022 Wakefield by-election for the Workers Party of Britain, while criticising Labour's candidate selection process.
110.
However, George Galloway stated that he would prefer for a local candidate amongst the Labour ranks to stand.
111.
In January 2024, George Galloway announced that he would stand in the Rochdale by-election the following month, again for the Workers Party of Britain.
112.
George Galloway claimed he received a text from Richard Tice to be the Reform UK party candidate.
113.
George Galloway was elected in a political upset after Azhar Ali, the Labour candidate, lost the support of his party due to comments made regarding the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
114.
On 23 May 2024, George Galloway confirmed he would be running for re-election in Rochdale at the 2024 general election.
115.
George Galloway polled 11,508 votes and lost the seat to Labour's Paul Waugh, who polled 13,047 votes.
116.
George Galloway once received an award from Stonewall and voted to lower the age of consent for homosexuality from 18 to 16.
117.
George Galloway voted in favour of allowing gay couples to marry in 2013, though he was absent for the third reading of the bill.
118.
George Galloway said he wanted children taught that "the normal thing in Britain, in society across the world, is a mother, a father and a family".
119.
George Galloway has been stated to oppose transgender rights and has been accused of "transphobic dog-whistles", as well as "disinformation and conspiracist ideas" regarding transgender people.
120.
George Galloway is opposed to euthanasia, saying in 2005, "I have all my life been against abortion and against euthanasia".
121.
In 2024, George Galloway reaffirmed his opposition to euthanasia in an interview with The Daily Telegraph's Tim Stanley.
122.
George Galloway is a staunch critic of Israel and of Zionism.
123.
In Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England, Anthony Julius cites this interview as one example of George Galloway pandering to the antisemitic prejudices of his audience.
124.
George Galloway criticised the British government's support of Israel during the Gaza war and condemned the alleged genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
125.
George Galloway disputed reports from the Israeli government about the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
126.
In 2009, George Galloway received a Palestinian passport from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
127.
Bradshaw later withdrew his allegation, and George Galloway apologised for using unparliamentary language.
128.
George Galloway managed to keep his country together until 1991.
129.
In 2006 a video surfaced showing George Galloway greeting Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, with the title of "Excellency", at Uday's palace in 1999.
130.
George Galloway is heard saying he will be with Uday "until the end".
131.
George Galloway continued to praise Iraq's prime minister under Saddam, Tariq Aziz.
132.
George Galloway was challenged by the BBC but denied making the "martyrs" comment.
133.
George Galloway supported the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, telling the Lebanese Daily Star in August 2008: "Syrian troops in Lebanon maintain stability and protect the country from Israel".
134.
When Syria did withdraw from Lebanon, George Galloway objected and said the occupation had been entirely "legal"; Christopher Hitchens, citing the Taif Accords of 1989, disputed his comment.
135.
George Galloway again praised the government of Assad in a leaked 2010 email to Assad's advisor Bouthaina Shaaban when asking for help in a Viva Palestina convoy, and reminded her of previous help from the Syrian government for the campaign.
136.
George Galloway said in a July 2011 interview on Hezbollah's Al-Manar station: "Bashar Assad wants reform and change, to realise the aspirations of his people".
137.
In January 2013, George Galloway criticised David Cameron's government for arming Syrian rebels linked to Salafi jihadism.
138.
In 2014, George Galloway opposed Western military action against Islamic State, which he called a "death cult", and instead advocated military action from the regional powers.
139.
George Galloway has worked for the Iranian state-run satellite television channel, Press TV since 2008.
140.
In March 2008, George Galloway said that the issue of gay rights in Iran was being misused by supporters of war against Iran.
141.
George Galloway said on The Wright Stuff chat show that the executed boyfriend of gay Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for "sex crimes" rather than for being gay.
142.
George Galloway discussed Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to stoning, which he described as "the so-called stoning case".
143.
George Galloway told Ahmadinejad: "I have police protection in London from the Iranian opposition because of my support for your election campaign" in 2009.
144.
George Galloway has long supported devolution for Scotland, but opposes Scottish independence.
145.
George Galloway told Serena Kutchinsky in an interview for Prospect magazine: "If we lose this vote the possibility of a real Labour government, or any kind of Labour government, in the rest of UK will be gone".
146.
In 2013, George Galloway began a series of public meetings in Scotland, using the slogan "Just Say Naw" to independence.
147.
On 11 September 2014, George Galloway took part in Scotland Decides: The Big, Big Debate, an independence debate held in Glasgow and broadcast by the BBC during the evening.
148.
In July 2020, George Galloway co-founded and established a cross-party Scottish unionist political coalition called Alliance 4 Unity.
149.
In 2014, George Galloway said he would "be campaigning to remain in the European Union, as anyone with any brain cells will be doing".
150.
At a rally at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on 19 February 2016, George Galloway endorsed the Grassroots Out campaign for the European Union membership referendum.
151.
George Galloway was introduced by UKIP leader Nigel Farage as a "special guest" who is "without doubt one of the greatest orators in this country, he is a towering figure on the left of British politics".
152.
On 17 April 2019 George Galloway announced he would support the Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage in the May 2019 European Parliament election.
153.
From 2013 to 2022, George Galloway was a presenter on the Russian state-controlled television network RT.
154.
George Galloway called the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution a "coup" and a "foreign financed invasion of the sovereignty of Ukraine".
155.
George Galloway believes Russia's annexation of Crimea was legitimate, because he said the disputed 2014 Crimean status referendum showed that "the huge majority of people in Crimea wanted to leave Ukraine".
156.
When Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned in August 2020, George Galloway claimed on RT that Navalny was a white supremacist.
157.
George Galloway was accused of being an apologist and propagandist for Russian president Vladimir Putin by the larger political parties.
158.
In 2019, George Galloway defended the authorities' crackdown on protests in Hong Kong.
159.
George Galloway has dismissed the evidence for the persecution of Uighur Muslims by the Chinese authorities.
160.
George Galloway stated that China had established "re-education centres" to steer terrorists away from the path of extremism.
161.
George Galloway said, after spending time in North Korea, he "does not agree with the North Korean system" and would not like to live there.
162.
George Galloway blamed the United States for "war mongering" during the crisis and called South Korea its "puppet state".
163.
George Galloway has been an advocate for the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez and, in his Fidel Castro Handbook, for the former Cuban leader.
164.
George Galloway has criticised Britain's close ties with Saudi Arabia and British involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
165.
George Galloway opposes India's role in the Kashmir conflict with Pakistan, and has voiced support for the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir.
166.
George Galloway said the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "has blood on his hands".
167.
In October 1991, George Galloway tabled a motion in the House of Commons expressing concern at the allegations against news publisher Mirror Group Newspapers put forward in Seymour Hersh's recently published book, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.
168.
George Galloway's motion called upon Mirror Group's owner, Robert Maxwell, to appoint a tribunal to investigate the allegations and the potential involvement of foreign intelligence in the publishing group.
169.
George Galloway sued for libel and was awarded a public apology and substantial undisclosed damages from the Mirror Group.
170.
George Galloway sued the newspaper for libel, and the case was heard in the High Court on 14 November 2004.
171.
In November 2007, Jewish radio station Jcom aired a satirical segment in which a character named 'Georgie George Galloway' used the anti-Semitic catchphrase "kill the Jews, kill the Jews".
172.
George Galloway sued the station for libel and won the case in the High Court.
173.
George Galloway said the judgment had "categorically crushed the slur of anti-Semitism" against him.
174.
On 5 February 2015, George Galloway appeared on BBC's Question Time discussion programme, recorded in Finchley, London, within a constituency with Britain's largest Jewish community.
175.
The Jewish Chronicle wrote that "George Galloway was heckled by Jewish audience members who challenged him on his anti-Israel record" and the audience shouted "You're not welcome here".
176.
Five days later, Hadley Freeman, a columnist for The Guardian, tweeted: "George Galloway has said and done things that cross the line from anti-Israel to antisemitic".
177.
George Galloway said that he would issue a suit for defamation against her.
178.
On 20 June 2016, George Galloway lost a libel action brought by Aisha Ali-Khan, his assistant for six months in 2012.
179.
George Galloway had claimed that she had pursued a "dirty tricks" campaign against him and the Respect Party, and had slept at his house with her then-husband.
180.
George Galloway's counsel apologised on Galloway's behalf, and accepted that he had made "defamatory accusations".
181.
In 2018 George Galloway brought an action that Ali-Khan had breached this undertaking 26 times, which Ali-Khan admitted, and in April 2018 the High Court imprisoned Ali-Khan for 12 weeks for contempt of court, describing her action as "deliberate, flagrant, persistent and inexcusable".
182.
George Galloway said Twitter had refused to explain the label, which he said was added to his account after he had stopped presenting on Russian television channels, which were closed by the British government in March 2022.
183.
George Galloway sued Twitter for defamation in the High Court, Dublin.
184.
Shortly after its foundation in June 2012, George Galloway became a presenter with the Al Mayadeen television station where he presents "Kalima Hurra".
185.
George Galloway is a regular contributor to RT's other programming.
186.
In 2016, George Galloway presented a documentary film, The Killing$ of Tony Blair.
187.
George Galloway said that this referred to a number of Tottenham fans who were flying the flag of Israel in the crowd, showing "an affiliation to a 'racist state'".
188.
In 2014, George Galloway was attacked in Notting Hill, London, by a Jewish convert, due to his position on the state of Israel, and sustained a head injury, leading him to wear a hat ever since.
189.
George Galloway has been married four times and has six children.
190.
In 1994, George Galloway married Amineh Abu-Zayyad, a Palestinian biologist, in a non-legally binding Islamic ceremony; a legally binding civil ceremony followed in March 2000.
191.
George Galloway married Rima Husseini, his former researcher, in a non-legally binding Islamic ceremony in 2005.
192.
George Galloway had two sons with Husseini, who is from Lebanon.
193.
Pertiwi worked as a consultant for a Dutch research firm and as a co-presenter of George Galloway's TV show Sputnik.
194.
In March 2024, George Galloway was sworn-in as an MP holding a King James Bible.