George Galloway clashes with GMB hosts in fiery interview (2024)

Veteran political firebrand George Galloway furiously clashed with the hosts of Good Morning Britain as they took the country's newest elected MP to task over his previous comments on the October 7 attacks.

Newly elected Rochdale MP Galloway, who has been voted in seven times for Labour, the Respect Party and his new Workers Party of Britain, butted heads with Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid in an explosive ITV interview.

The 69-year-old Dundonian appeared to be irritated as he was asked about comments made by Rishi Sunak, who said Galloway's victory was 'beyondalarming' because he 'dismisses the horror of October 7'.

And he warred with the presenters after they chose to pick him up on comments made in 1994 to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, to whom he said: 'Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.'

Galloway claimed those comments were directed at the Iraqi people rather than Hussein himself - but fumed at Madeley and Reid for using what he said were out-of-date comments to attack him.

He said on GMB of the Saddam comments:'I've made lots of mistakes but not that one. That jibe doesn't quite have the sting it used to have. It was 25 years ago.

'You need to find some new cuttings to throw at me.' He labelled the questioning 'absurd' and 'preposterous'.

Following Galloway's election, Mr Sunak had described him as someone 'who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah, and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP'.

Griffin had said in a tweet on February 29, the day of the Rochdale by-election, that Galloway was 'not perfect, but.. the best way by far to stick two fingers up to the rotten political elite and their fake news media cronies'.

Asked what he made of the Prime Minister's comments, Mr Galloway said: 'I think I dealt with that at the time and I think he's probably a little embarrassed about the melodrama bringing out steps to stand on in Downing Street.'

As he thundered. 'I'm not here on trial,' Reid stepped in to remind him: 'Sorry, you're here for an interview, George Galloway. No one is putting you on trial.'

Galloway continued: 'I'm not here to talk about Rishi Sunak.We're going to be a significant factor in the upcoming general election.We want to replace the Labour Party.'

Asked what he would like to talk about instead, Galloway said he would rather bring up the fact England cricket legend Monty Panesar will be standing for the WPB in Southall.

And of Griffin's endorsem*nt of him for the Rochdale by-election, Galloway said: 'Make up your mind: am I the champion of the Muslims or am I endorsed by a guy that hates Muslims? He issued a tweet. How am I responsible for that?'

The veteran MP was then pressed on the fact he converted to Islam - a suggestion put to him in an interview with the New Statesmanin 2012 by Jemima Khan, who said she was aware he had attended a conversion ceremony.

In a subsequent statement to the Guardian, he denied attending 'any such ceremony in Kilburn, Karachi or Kathmandu' but did not deny being a Muslim. He now says he is Roman Catholic.

He fumed on GMB: 'I'm a practising Roman Catholic, that's how good his (Richard Madeley's) press cuttings are. That is false. That is false. That's never been a part of my life,' he said.

'It was probably running out of the same school as Rishi Sunak's false statements standing on steps in Downing Street. All of them (are false).

'I do not dismiss the horror of what happened on October 7. I don't glorify Hezbollah, and I wasn't endorsed by Nick Griffin.'

Following the interview, Galloway posted a bizarre comment on X noting: 'If I believed everything I read on the internet I'd think Richard Madley (sic) stole two bottles of champagne and was a shoplifter. He isn't, he just forgot to pay for them.'

Galloway is a frequent critic of Israel and Zionism but denies supporting Hamas, instead vowing to be on the side of Palestinian people.

But he has made contentious comments about Hamas' invasion of Israel on October 7, which saw 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, indiscriminately slaughtered in the streets and in their homes.

Galloway claimed in November that two-thirds of the Israelis killed on October 7 were 'military personnel' and that the remaining third were 'in part the Israeli armed forces themselves'.

He did not include any evidence to support his claims, and an AFP investigation last December found almost two thirds of the dead in Israel were civilians.

He told Sky News shortly after being elected he did not understand the PM's assessment that he 'backed Hezbollah', a Lebanese militant group and political partydesignated a terrorist organisation in the UK.

But Galloway told a July 2006 rally convened to protest Israeli bombing of Lebanon: 'Hezbollah has never been a terrorist organisation, they’re freedom fighters.

‘I’m here to glorify the Lebanese resistance, to glorify the leaders of the Lebanese resistance – Hezbollah and Hasan Nasrallah.'

The remarks were reported in a number of sources, including the Workers Revolutionary Party's News Line newspaper, and later corroborated by Galloway himself in an opinion piece for the Socialist Worker.

Galloway stole Rochdale from Labour in February's by-election, called in the wake of the death of veteran MP Sir Tony Lloyd, overturning the party's 9,668 majority.

Labour withdrew support for its own candidate, Azhar Ali, after he was recorded making comments suggesting Israeli had allowed the October 7 attacks to happen so it could justify an invasion of Gaza.

Galloway had made Gaza front and centre of his campaign in the Greater Manchester constituency, which has an 18.8 per cent Muslim population as of 2021 - nearly three times the national average of 6.5 per cent.

And as he was sworn in as MP for Rochdale, he made comments that appeared to liken Israel to Nazi Germany by suggesting it was committing a 'holocaust'.

He told reporters 'If the by-election had been in February of 1940 or 41, would anyone seriously have condemned me for putting the crimes of the Holocaust at the center of my election campaign?'

His Workers Party of Britain (WPB) is the third platform on which he has won elections - having previously been kicked out of Labour in 2003 after calling on British soldiers to defy their commanding officers in Iraq.

Last month, WPB deputy leader and ex-Labour MP Chris Williamson refused to condemn the October 7 attacks conducted by Hamas, as they killed 1,200 Israelis after breaching the border with Gaza.

The left-wing stalwart has also previously found himself in hot water over comments he made supporting controversial figures such as Vladimir Putin.

He worked for Russian government-backed TV channel RT, presenting Sputnik alongside his wife Gayatri in 2013, and also worked for Iran-controlled TV channel Press TV, which was later stripped of its UK licence by regulators Ocom.

Galloway continues to work for Press TV in an online capacity - and this month interviewed an activist who urged people to join up with Hezbollah in its ongoing conflict with Israel.

He said in a tweet that a recent interview with the Russian president conducted by former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson showed he was 'not Vlad the Mad or Bad and that (people have) been lied to about him'.

As well as Labour, Respect and the WPB, Galloway also stood in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections for his British unionist party, All for Unity, in the South Scotland region. He notched up 1.5 per cent of the votes.