George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, author, and broadcaster who was a
Member of Parliament (MP) from
1987 to
2010. He was formerly an MP for the
Labour Party, first for
Glasgow Hillhead, and later for
Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year that he came to public attention for his opposition to the
American and British invasion of Iraq. He subsequently became a founding member of the
left wing Respect Party, and through them represented
Bethnal Green and Bow in the
2005 parliament. In the 2010 election, Galloway unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of
Poplar and Limehouse.
Galloway is also known for his vigorous campaigns in favour of the Palestinians in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He attempted to both overturn economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s and early 2000s, and to avert the 2003 invasion. He is also known for a visit to Iraq where he met Saddam Hussein and delivered a speech, which has proven contentious, although Galloway actively opposed the regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991 and has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people in the speech.
Early and personal life
Galloway was born in the
Lochee area of
Dundee, Scotland, to a Scottish trade unionist father and Irish republican mother. He grew up in
Charleston and attended Charleston Primary and then
Harris Academy, a non-denominational school.
From 1979 to 1999, he was married to Elaine Fyffe, with whom he has a daughter, Lucy. In 2000, he married Amineh Abu-Zayyad. Zayyad filed for divorce in 2005. He married Rima Husseini, a Lebanese woman and former researcher, who in May 2007 gave birth to a son, Zein.
Galloway was raised as a Roman Catholic. He turned away from the church as a young man, but returned in his mid-20s. By his own account he decided to never drink alcohol at the age of 18, disapproves of it, and describes it as having a "very deleterious effect on people".
Labour Party organiser
Galloway joined the
Labour Party at 13 years old and, within five years, was secretary of the
Dundee West constituency party. His enthusiasm led him to become vice-chairman of the Labour Party in the city of Dundee and a member of the Scottish Executive Committee in 1975. On 5 May 1977, he contested his first election campaign in the Scottish district elections, but failed to hold the safe Labour seat at
Gillburn,
Dundee. He was beaten by the
Independent candidate Bunty Turley, who was a trade unionist running on the campaign slogan "enough is enough" after allegations were made about Galloway's personal and financial behaviour.
Galloway became the secretary organiser of Dundee Labour Party—the youngest ever Scottish chairman—in March 1981 at 26 years old.
His support for the Palestinian cause began in 1974 when he met a Palestinian activist in Dundee; he supported the actions of Dundee City council which flew the Palestinian flag inside the City Chambers. He was involved in the twinning of Dundee with Nablus in 1980, although he did not take part in the visit of Lord Provost Gowans, Ernie Ross MP and three city councillors to Nablus and Kuwait in April 1981.
Parliamentary career and public profile
War On Want
From November 1983 to 1987, Galloway was General Secretary of
War On Want, a British charity that campaigns against poverty worldwide. In this post he was much travelled, writing eye-witness accounts of the famine in
Eritrea in 1985 which were published in
The Sunday Times and
The Spectator.
The Daily Mirror accused him of living luxuriously at the charity's expense. An independent auditor cleared him of misuse of funds, though he did repay £1,720 in contested expenses. He later reportedly won £155,000 from the Mirror in an unrelated libel lawsuit.
More than two years after Galloway stepped down to serve as a Labour MP, the UK government investigated War on Want. It found accounting irregularities from 1985 to 1989, but little evidence that money was used for non-charitable purposes. Galloway had been General Secretary for the first three of those years. The commission said responsibility lay largely with auditors, and did not single out individuals for blame. The statement put Galloway on the front pages of the tabloid press and in February 1988 the Executive Committee of his Constituency Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in him.
In 1990, a classified advertisement appeared in the Labour left weekly Tribune headed "Lost: MP who answers to the name of George", "balding and has been nicknamed gorgeous", claiming that the lost MP had been seen in Romania but had not been to a constituency meeting for a year. A telephone number was given which turned out to be for the Groucho Club in London, from which Galloway had recently been excluded (he has since been readmitted). Galloway threatened legal action and pointed out that he had been to five constituency meetings. He eventually settled for an out-of-court payment by Tribune.
The leadership election of the Labour Party in 1992 saw Galloway voting for fellow Scot John Smith for Leader and Margaret Beckett as Deputy Leader. In 1994, after Smith's death, Galloway declined to cast a vote in the leadership election (one of only three MPs to do so). In a debate with the leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond, Galloway responded to one of Salmond's jibes against the Labour Party by declaring "I don't give a fuck what Tony Blair thinks." He called the Labour government "Tony Blair's lie machine." His most controversial statement from the interview may have been "Iraq is fighting for all the Arabs. Where are the Arab armies?". The Observer reported in 2003 that the Director of Public Prosecutions was considering a request to pursue Galloway under the Incitement to Disaffection Act, 1934, though no prosecution occurred.
On 18 April, The Sun published an interview with Tony Blair who said: "His comments were disgraceful and wrong. The National Executive will deal with it." The General Secretary of the Labour Party, citing Galloway's outspoken opinion of Blair and Bush in their pursuit of the Iraq war, suspended him from holding office in the party on 6 May 2003, pending a hearing on charges that he had violated the party's constitution by "bringing the Labour Party into disrepute through behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Party". The National Constitutional Committee held a hearing on 22 October 2003, to consider the charges, taking evidence from Galloway himself, from other party witnesses, viewing media interviews, and hearing character testimony from Tony Benn, among others. The following day, the committee found the charge of bringing the party into disrepute proved, and so expelled Galloway from the Labour Party. Galloway called the Committee's hearing "a show trial" and "a kangaroo court".
2005 election
In January 2004, Galloway announced he would be working with members of the
Socialist Alliance in England and Wales, and others, under the name
Respect - The Unity Coalition, generally referred to simply as Respect. This was despite Galloway having a track record of antipathy toward
Trotskyists, and the largest component of Respect being the
Socialist Workers Party, which broadly identifies itself as part of the Trotskyist political tradition.
Some former members of the Socialist Alliance, including the Workers Liberty and Workers Power groups, objected to forming a coalition with Galloway, citing his political record, and his refusal to accept an average worker's wage, with Galloway claiming "I couldn’t live on three workers’ wages."
He stood as the Respect candidate in London in the 2004 European Parliament elections, but failed to win a seat after receiving 91,175 of the 115,000 votes he needed.
After his expulsion, he had initially fuelled speculation that he might call a snap by-election before then, by resigning his parliamentary seat, saying:
Galloway later announced that he would not force a by-election and intended not to contest the next general election in Glasgow. Galloway's Glasgow Kelvin seat was split between three neighbouring constituencies for the May 2005 general election. One of these, the redrawn Glasgow Central constituency, might have been his best chance to win, but had his long-time friend Mohammad Sarwar, the first Muslim Labour MP and a strong opponent of the Iraq War in place; Galloway did not wish to challenge him. After the European election results became known, Galloway announced that he would stand in Bethnal Green and Bow, the area where Respect had its strongest election results and where the sitting Labour MP, Oona King, supported the Iraq War. On 2 December, despite speculation that he might stand in Newham, he confirmed that he would be the candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow.
The ensuing electoral campaign in the seat proved to be a difficult one with heated rhetoric. The BBC reported that Galloway had himself been threatened with death by extreme Islamists from the banned organisation al-Ghurabaa. All the major candidates united in condemning the threats and violence.
On 5 May, Galloway won the seat by 823 votes and made a fiery acceptance speech, saying that Tony Blair had the blood of 100,000 people on his hands and denouncing the returning officer over alleged discrepancies in the electoral process. When challenged in a subsequent televised interview by Jeremy Paxman as to whether he was happy to have removed one of the few black women in Parliament, Galloway replied "I don't believe that people get elected because of the colour of their skin. I believe people get elected because of their record and because of their policies."
Oona King later told the Today programme that she found Paxman's line of question inappropriate. "He shouldn't be barred from running against me because I'm a black woman ... I was not defined, or did not wish to be defined, by either my ethnicity or religious background."
Constitutional Affairs minister David Lammy later criticised Galloway for the "manner in which he won that seat, whipping up racial tensions, dividing some of the poorest people in this country, I think was obscene." Lammy further called him a "carpetbagger."
"It's good to be back", Galloway said on being sworn in as MP for Bethnal Green after the May election. He pledged to represent "the people that New Labour has abandoned" and to "speak for those who have nobody else to speak for them."
Parliamentary participation statistics
After he was suspended and later expelled from the Labour Party, Galloway's participation in Parliamentary activity fell to minimal levels. After speaking in a debate on Iraq on 25 March 2003, Galloway did not intervene in any way in Parliamentary debates or ask any oral questions for the remainder of the Parliament and his participation in House of Commons
Divisions was among the lowest of any MP.
Following the 2005 election, his participation rate remained low, at the end of the year he had participated in only 15% of Divisions in the House of Commons since the general election, placing him 634th of 645 MPs - of the eleven MPs below him in the rankings, one is the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, five are Sinn Féin members who have an abstentionist policy toward taking their seats, three are the speaker and deputy speakers and therefore ineligible to vote, and two have died since the election. Galloway claims a record of unusual activity at a "grass roots" level. His own estimate is that he has made 1,100 public speeches between September 2001 and May 2005.
In November 2005, Galloway's commitment to Parliamentary activity was again called into question when he failed to attend the Report Stage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in the House of Commons, despite Respect having urged its members to put pressure on MPs to attend. It was later confirmed that Galloway had been carrying out a speaking engagement in Cork, Ireland on the night (Galloway's spokesman asserted the performance was "uncancellable").
Although that stage of the bill failed by two votes, it initially appeared that the government won by a majority of only one, in which Galloway's attendance would have tied the vote. However, even in the case of a tie the vote would not have resulted in defeat for the government, because the vote was on an amendment (tightening the standard on what constitutes incitement to terrorism) and the amendment would not have passed. It would have taken three more "aye" votes to pass the amendment. All the same, Respect later put out a statement stating that it regretted the vote had been missed. The statement further claimed that Galloway had cleared his diary for all the subsequent votes on the bill. Galloway did attend a subsequent debate on the Bill, and voted against the final reading of the bill, which passed.
Questioned about this in a Guardian interview, Galloway responded: "I am in the Commons every day, apart from when I was banned. What I don't do is vote in the Commons and the reason for that is really quite banal. Almost every vote there is a yes or no vote, for either the prime minister's motion or the opposition leader's amendment. I almost never wish to vote for either, and there is no provision for abstention."
Galloway voted in support of the government's original draft of the religious hatred bill in 2006, which many people had feared would restrict artistic freedom and free speech.
As of September 2009, he still had one of the lowest voting participation records in parliament at 8.4% as a total of 93 votes out of a possible 1113 divisions.
Suspension from the House of Commons
On 17 July 2007, following a four-year inquiry, the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges published its sixth report. The committee concluded that there was "no evidence" that Galloway gained any personal benefit from either the former Iraqi regime, or from the
Oil-for-Food Programme. It did not examine the bank account of Galloway's former wife or their joint account.
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However, it found that Galloway's use of parliamentary resources to support his work on the Mariam Appeal "went beyond what was reasonable" and recommended he be suspended from the House.
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In response, Galloway stated
At a press conference following publication of the report, Galloway stated "To be deprived of the company for 18 days of the honourable ladies and gentleman behind me [in parliament] will be painful ... but I'm intending to struggle on regardless... What really upset them [the committee] is that I always defend myself... I am not a punchbag. If you aim low blows at me, I'll fight back".
The 2010 general election
On 10 August 2007, Galloway confirmed he would stand in newly created constituency of
Poplar and Limehouse where the Labour Party has a notional majority of 3,942. The Labour candidate was the current
Poplar and Canning Town MP
Jim Fitzpatrick. Galloway said he had planned to stand down from Parliament at the next election, but was prompted to stay on and fight to win the neighbouring east London constituency after he felt he was unfairly suspended from Parliament for 18 days.
In the election Galloway was defeated, coming third after the Labour and Conservative candidates. He received 8,460 votes.
Political views
Galloway advocates greater spending on
welfare benefits, and some
nationalisation of large industries. Galloway is opposed to
abortion, although he supports Respect's
pro-choice stance. He opposes
Scottish independence but supports the right of the people to vote on the matter via a referendum. He also supports the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the
2007 Scottish Parliament election, George Galloway supported
Solidarity, despite not supporting all their policies, such as
Scottish independence. Galloway has attracted most attention for his comments on foreign policy, taking a special interest in
Libya,
Pakistan,
Iraq, and the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the report "Preventing terrorism, where next for Britain?" from the both private and public funded counter-extremism
think tank Quilliam, Galloway is "Islamist backed".
Inayat Bunglawala, chair of Muslims4Uk and a former MCB spokesperson, said: "This is just like something straight out of a Stasi manual. The advice from Quilliam is frankly appalling and incredibly self-serving."
Iraq and Saddam Hussein
Galloway opposed the
1991 Gulf War and was critical of the effect the
subsequent sanctions had on the people of
Iraq. He visited
Iraq twice and met senior government officials. His involvement caused some critics to deride him as the "member for
Baghdad North". In 1994, Galloway faced some of his strongest criticism on his return from a Middle-Eastern visit during which he had met Saddam Hussein "to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war". At the meeting, he reported the support given to Saddam by the people of the
Gaza Strip and ended his speech with the phrase "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability," although Galloway maintains that he was misinterpreted. Galloway's most recent public statement on the matter was in a January 2007 edition of the BBC's
Hardtalk in which he states that he was saluting the "Iraqi people". Galloway's speech was translated for Hussein. Anasal-Tikriti, a friend of Galloways and a Respect candidate, spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain said: "I understand Arabic and it [Galloway's salutation] was taken completely out of context. When he said "you" he meant the Iraqi people, he was saluting their indefatigability, their resolve against sanctions. Even the interpreter got it right and, in Arabic, says salutes the stand of the Iraqi people'."
In 1999, Galloway was criticised for spending Christmas in Iraq with Tariq Aziz, then Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister. In the 17 May 2005, hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Galloway stated that he had had many meetings with Aziz, and characterised their relationship as friendly. After the fall of Saddam, he continued to praise Aziz, calling him "an eminent diplomatic and intellectual person". In 2006 a video surfaced showing Galloway enthusiastically greeting Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, with the title of "Excellency" at Uday's palace in 1999. "The two men also made unflattering comments about the United States and joked about losing weight, going bald and how difficult it is to give up smoking cigars," according to The Scotsman.
In a House of Commons debate on 6 March 2002, Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw said of Galloway that he was "not just an apologist, but a mouthpiece, for the Iraqi regime over many years." Galloway called the Minister a liar and refused to withdraw: "[Bradshaw's] imputation that I am a mouthpiece for a dictator is a clear imputation of dishonour" he said, and the sitting was suspended due to the dispute. Bradshaw later withdrew his allegation, and Galloway apologised for using unparliamentary language. In August 2002, Galloway returned to Iraq and met Saddam Hussein for a second time. According to Galloway, the intention of the trip was to persuade Saddam to re-admit Hans Blix, and the United Nations weapons inspectors into the country.
s petition, sitting on the edge of the StWC stage at the 2005 Make Poverty History rally.]]
Giving evidence in his libel case against the Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2004, Galloway testified that he regarded Saddam as a "bestial dictator" and would have welcomed his removal from power, but not by means of a military attack on Iraq. Galloway also pointed that he was a prominent critic of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s, as well as of the role of Margaret Thatcher's government in supporting arms sales to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war. Labour MP Tam Dalyell said during the controversy over whether Galloway should be expelled from the Labour Party that "in the mid-1980s there was only one MP that I can recollect making speeches about human rights in Iraq and this was George Galloway." When the issue of Galloway's meetings with Saddam Hussein is raised, including before the U.S. Senate, Galloway has argued that he had met Saddam "exactly the same number of times as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns." He continued "I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war".
During a 9 March 2005 interview at the University of Dhaka campus Galloway called for a global alliance between Muslims and progressives: "Not only do I think it’s possible but I think it is vitally necessary and I think it is happening already. It is possible because the progressive movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies. Their enemies are the Zionist occupation, American occupation, British occupation of poor countries mainly Muslim countries."
Israel and Palestine
At a 22 July 2006 demonstration (and later in a
Socialist Worker op-ed), Galloway stated "Hezbollah has never been a terrorist organisation!" The
National Union of Students of the United Kingdom passed a motion condemning Galloway for this statement.
In an interview with the American radio host Alex Jones, Galloway blamed Israel for creating "conditions in the Arab countries and in some European countries to stampede Jewish people ... into the Zionist state". Jones then alleged that the "Zionists" funded Hitler, to which Galloway replied that Zionists used the Jewish people "to create this little settler state on the Mediterranean," whose purpose was "to act as an advance guard for their own interests in the Arab world..."
In a series of speeches broadcast on Arab television, Galloway described Jerusalem and Baghdad as being "raped" by "foreigners," referring to Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, and the war in Iraq.
Galloway was introduced as “a former member of the British Houses of Parliament” during a live interview with Qatari Al-Jazeera television, to which he responded: “I am still a member of parliament and was re-elected five times. On the last occasion I was re-elected despite all the efforts made by the British government, the Zionist movement and the newspapers and news media which are controlled by Zionism.”
Galloway expressed support for the Syrian presence in Lebanon five months before it ended, telling the Daily Star of Lebanon "Syrian troops in Lebanon maintain stability and protect the country from Israel". In the same article he expressed his opposition to UN resolution 1559 which urged the Lebanese Government to establish control over all its territory.
Blair and Bush
At the national conference of the
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, on 30 June 2003, Galloway apologised for describing George W. Bush as a "wolf", saying that to do so defamed wolves:
On 20 November 2004, George Galloway gave an interview on Abu Dhabi TV in which he said:
On 20 June 2005, he appeared on Al Jazeera English to lambast these two leaders and others.
In an interview with Piers Morgan for GQ Magazine in May 2006, Galloway was asked whether a suicide bomb attack on Tony Blair with "no other casualties" would be morally justifiable "as revenge for the war on Iraq?". He answered "Yes it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it, but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable, and morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq as Blair did." He further stated that if he knew about such a plan that he would inform the relevant authorities, saying: "I would [tell the police], because such an operation would be counterproductive because it would just generate a new wave of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment whipped up by the press. It would lead to new draconian anti-terror laws, and would probably strengthen the resolve of the British and American services in Iraq rather than weaken it. So yes, I would inform the authorities." Some news analysts, notably Christopher Hitchens, took this to be a call for an attack while appearing not to.
The July 2005 London bombings
In the
House of Commons, on the day of the
7 July 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people and injured hundreds, and following a visit to the
Royal London Hospital in his constituency where many of the victims had been taken, Galloway condemned the attacks strongly, but argued that they could not be separated from the hatred and bitterness felt among Muslims because of injustices in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, including injustices, he said, suffered as a result of British foreign policy:
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Winding up the debate for the government in the last moments allotted, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram described Galloway's remarks as "disgraceful" and accused Galloway of "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood." No time remained for Galloway to intervene and he ran afoul of the Deputy Speaker when trying to make a point of order about Ingram's attack. He later went on to describe Ingram as a "thug" who had committed a "foul-mouthed, deliberately timed, last-10-seconds smear." The men had previously clashed over claims in Galloway's autobiography (see below).
Pakistan coup of 1999
At the time of the 1999
Musharraf coup in Pakistan, he wrote, "In poor third world countries like Pakistan, politics is too important to be left to petty squabbling politicians. Pakistan is always on the brink of breaking apart into its widely disparate components. Only the armed forces can really be counted on to hold such a country together... Democracy is a means, not an end in itself and it has a bad name on the streets of Karachi and Lahore." Nonetheless, on his
TalkSport talk radio show, Galloway has been outspoken in criticising the former Pakistani leader
Pervez Musharraf.
Record on LGBT issues
In 1994, Galloway voted in support of the equalisation of the
age of consent for
homosexuality (which was then 21 years) with that for
heterosexuality at 16 years. He also voted against a reduction of the homosexual age of consent to 18. He voted in favour of permitting unmarried and gay couples to adopt children. Critics have claimed that his involvement in the leadership of
Respect - which made no explicit mention of gay rights in its 2005 election manifesto and accepted donations from
Islamic Party members - raise questions about commitment to those issues, as does his rather poor voting record in parliamentary divisions, 80% of which he missed, during the 2001-5 parliament while still a Glasgow MP. However, Respect's 2005 conference, in which Galloway took part, resolved that explicit defence of equal rights and calls for the end to all discrimination against
lesbian,
gay,
bisexual and
transgender people would be made in all of its manifestos and principal election materials.
Galloway's assertion on The Wright Stuff chat show (13 March 2008) that the executed boyfriend of homosexual Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for sex crimes rather than for being homosexual received criticism from Peter Tatchell, among others. Galloway also stated on The Wright Stuff that the case of gay rights in Iran was being used by supporters of war with Iran.
2009 Iranian elections
Galloway has encouraged Western governments to accept the
election of the
conservative President of the
Islamic Republic of Iran,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, contradicting the position of the exiled Iranian left.
Humanitarian work
Mariam Appeal
In 1998 Galloway founded the
Mariam Appeal, intended "to campaign against sanctions on Iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of Iraq". The campaign was named after Mariam Hamza, a child flown by the fund from Iraq to Britain to receive treatment for
leukaemia. The intention was to raise awareness of the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of other Iraqi children due to poor health conditions and lack of suitable medicines and facilities, and to campaign for the lifting of the
Iraq sanctions that many maintained were responsible for that situation.
The fund received scrutiny during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after a complaint that Galloway used some of the donation money to pay his travel expenses. Galloway said that the expenses were incurred in his capacity as the Appeal's chairman. Although the Mariam Appeal was never a registered charity and never intended to be such, it was investigated by the Charity Commission. The report of this year-long inquiry, published in June 2004, found that the Mariam Appeal was doing charitable work (and so ought to have registered with them), but did not substantiate allegations that any funds had been misused.
A further Charity Commission Report published on 7 June 2007 found that the Appeal had received funds from Fawaz Zureikat that originated from the Oil For Food programme, and concluded that: "Although Mr Galloway, Mr Halford and Mr Al-Mukhtar have confirmed that they were unaware of the source of Mr Zureikat’s donations, the Commission has concluded that the charity trustees should have made further enquiries when accepting such large single and cumulative donations to satisfy themselves as to their origin and legitimacy. The Commission’s conclusion is that the charity trustees did not properly discharge their duty of care as trustees to the Appeal in respect of these donations." They added: "The Commission is also concerned, having considered the totality of the evidence before it, that Mr Galloway may also have known of the connection between the Appeal and the Programme". Galloway responded: "I've always disputed the Commission's retrospective view that a campaign to win a change in national and international policy—a political campaign—was, in fact, a charity."
Viva Palestina aid convoy
In response to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, in January 2009 Galloway instigated the Viva Palestina aid convoy to the Gaza Strip. On 14 February 2009, after raising over £1 million-worth of humanitarian aid in four weeks, Galloway and hundreds of volunteers launched the convoy comprising approximately 120 vehicles intended for use in the Strip, including a fire engine donated by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 12 ambulances, a boat and trucks full of medicines, tools, clothes, blankets and gifts for children. The 5,000-mile route passed through Belgium, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
On 20 February, Galloway condemned Lancashire Police after they arrested nine of the volunteers under the Terrorism Act a day before the convoy's launch. Galloway said: "The arrests were clearly deliberately timed for the eve of the departure of the convoy. Photographs of the high-profile snatch on the M65 were immediately fed to the press to maximise the newsworthiness of the smear that was being perpetrated on the convoy." Viva Palestina reported an 80% drop in donations following the broadcast of the arrests and the police allegations on the BBC.
The convoy arrived in Gaza on 9 March, accompanied by approximately 180 extra trucks of aid donated by Libya's Gaddafi Foundation. All the British aid was delivered with the exception of the fire engine and boat which were blocked by the Egyptian government. The boat is to be delivered later in a flotilla of craft which Viva Palestina! intends to take into Gaza harbour. On 10 March 2009, Galloway announced at a press conference in Gaza City attended by several senior Hamas officials: "We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of their contents, and we make no apology for what I am about to say. We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine," adding he would personally donate three cars and 25,000 pounds to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Viva Palestinia! on 23 March 2009, citing concerns over the finances, use of funds for non-charitable purposes, and the lack of "substantive response" to their repeated requests. George Galloway admitted that the appeal had not responded to the requests, but argued that a substantive response was anyway due to be passed to the Charity Commission only hours after they launched the inquiry. He argued that the Charity Commission's actions were suspicious, hinting that they might be politically motivated.
A third Viva Palestina convoy began at the end of 2009. On 8 January 2010, Galloway and his colleague Ron McKay were deported from Egypt immediately upon entry from Gaza. They had been attempting to help take about 200 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip. They were driven by the police to the airport and put on a plane to London. The previous day an Egyptian soldier had been killed during a clash at the border with Hamas loyalists. Several Palestinians were also injured.
Corruption allegations and other controversies
Oil for Food
Daily Telegraph libel case
On 22 April 2003, the
Daily Telegraph published an article describing documents found by its reporter
David Blair in the ruins of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The documents purport to be records of meetings between Galloway and Iraqi intelligence agents, and state that he had received £375,000 per year from the proceeds of the
Oil for Food programme. Galloway completely denied the story, and pointed to the nature of the discovery within an unguarded, bombed-out building as being questionable. He instigated legal action against the newspaper, which was heard in the High Court from 14 November 2004.
On 2 December, Justice David Eady ruled that the story had been "seriously defamatory", and that the Telegraph was "obliged to compensate Mr Galloway ... and to make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation". Galloway was awarded £150,000 damages plus costs estimated to total £1.2 million. The court did not grant leave to appeal; in order to appeal in the absence of leave, the defendants would have to petition the House of Lords.
The libel case was regarded by both sides as an important test of the Reynolds qualified-privilege defence. The Daily Telegraph did not attempt to claim justification (a defence in which the defendant bears the onus of proving that the defamatory reports are true): "It has never been the Telegraph's case to suggest that the allegations contained in these documents are true". Instead, the paper sought to argue that it acted responsibly because the allegations it reported were of sufficient public interest to outweigh the damage caused to Galloway's reputation. However, the court ruled that, "It was the defendants' primary case that their coverage was no more than 'neutral reportage' ... but the nature, content and tone of their coverage cannot be so described."
The issue of whether the documents were genuine was likewise not at issue at the trial. However, it later transpired that the expert hired by Galloway's lawyers, a forensic expert named Oliver Thorne, said "In my opinion the evidence found fully supports that the vast majority of the submitted documents are authentic." He added "It should be noted that I am unable to comment on the veracity of the information within the disputed Telegraph documents, whether or not they are authentic."
The Telegraph lost their appeal on 25 January 2006, the same day as Galloway's Big Brother eviction, and on 15 February 2006, the newspaper announced it would not be seeking leave to appeal.
Others
The
Christian Science Monitor also published a story on 25 April 2003, stating that they had documentary evidence that he had received "more than ten million dollars" from the Iraqi regime. However, on 20 June 2003, the
Monitor reported that their own investigation had concluded the documents were sophisticated forgeries, and apologised. Galloway rejected the newspaper's apology, asserted that the affair was a conspiracy against him, and continued a libel claim against the paper.
The Christian Science Monitor settled the claim, paying him an undisclosed sum in damages, on 19 March 2004. It emerged that these documents had first been offered to the Daily Telegraph, but they had rejected them. The documents' origin remains obscure.
In January 2004, a further set of allegations were made in al-Mada, a newspaper in Iraq. The newspaper claimed to have found documents in the Iraqi national oil corporation showing that Galloway received (through an intermediary) some of the profits arising from the sale of 19.5 million barrels (3,100,000 m³) of oil. Galloway acknowledged that money had been paid into the Mariam Appeal by Iraqi businessmen who had profited from the UN-run programme, but denied benefiting personally, and maintained that, in any case, there was nothing illicit about this:
The report of the Iraq Survey Group published in October 2004 claimed that Galloway was one of the recipients of a fund used by Iraq to buy influence among foreign politicians. Galloway denied receiving any money from Saddam Hussein's regime. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had begun an investigation into George Galloway but suspended it when Galloway launched legal action. On 14 December, it was announced that this investigation would resume.
U.S. Senate
Allegations
In May 2005, a U.S. Senate committee report accused Galloway along with former French minister
Charles Pasqua of receiving the right to buy oil under the UN's oil-for-food scheme. The report was issued by the
US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator
Norm Coleman, a
Republican from
Minnesota. The report cited further documents from the Iraqi oil ministry and interviews with Iraqi officials.
Coleman's committee said Pasqua had received allocations worth from 1999 to 2000, and Galloway received allocations worth from 2000 to 2003. The allegations against Pasqua and Galloway, both outspoken opponents of U.N. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, have been made before, including in an October report by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer as well as in the various purported documents described earlier in this section. But Coleman's report provided several new details. It also included information from interrogations of former high-ranking officials in U.S. custody, including former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. Among the claims is that there is new evidence to suggest that the Mariam Appeal, a children's leukaemia charity founded by Galloway, was in fact used to conceal oil payments. The report cites Ramadan as saying under interrogation that Galloway was allocated oil "because of his opinions about Iraq."
Socialist Worker reported what they say is evidence that the key Iraqi oil ministry documents regarding oil allocations, in which Galloway's name appears six times (contracts M/08/35, M/09/23, M/10/38, M/11/04, M/12/14, M/13/48) have been tampered with. They published a copy of contract M/09/23 and allege that George Galloway's name appears to have been added in a different font and at a different angle to the rest of the text on that line. In these documents (relating to oil allocations 8-13), Galloway is among just a few people whose nationality is never identified, whilst Zureikat is the only one whose nationality is identified in one instance but not in others.
Galloway combatively countered the charges by accusing Coleman and other pro-war politicians of covering up the "theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth... on your watch" that had occurred under a post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority, committed by "Halliburton and other American corporations... with the connivance of your own government."
Galloway's response
On 17 May 2005, the committee held a hearing concerning specific allegations (of which Galloway was one part) relating to improprieties surrounding the Oil-for-Food programme. Attending Galloway's oral testimony and enquiring of him were two of the thirteen committee members: the chair (Coleman) and the ranking
Democrat (
Carl Levin).
Upon Galloway's arrival in the US, he told Reuters, "I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neo-con George Bush". Galloway described Coleman as a "pro-war, neo-con hawk and the lickspittle of George W. Bush", who, he said, sought revenge against anyone who did not support the invasion of Iraq.
In his testimony, Galloway made the following statements in response to the allegations against him:
He questioned the reliability of evidence given by former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, stating that the circumstances of his captivity by American forces call into question the authenticity of the remarks. Galloway also pointed out an error in the report, where documents by The Daily Telegraph were said to have covered an earlier period from those held by the Senate. In fact the report's documents referred to the same period as those used by The Daily Telegraph, though Galloway pointed out that the presumed forgeries pertaining to the Christian Science Monitor report did refer to an earlier period.
Galloway also denounced the invasion of Iraq as having been based on "a pack of lies" in his Senate testimony. The U.S. media, in reporting his appearance, emphasised his blunt remarks on the war. The British media gave generally more positive coverage; TV presenter Anne Robinson said Galloway "quite frankly put the pride back in British politics" when introducing him for a prime time talk show.
Alleged false or misleading testimony
A report by the then-majority
Republican Party staff of the
United States Senate Committee on Investigations published in October 2005 asserted that Galloway had given false "or misleading" testimony under oath when appearing before them. The report exhibits bank statements it claims show that £85,000 of proceeds from the Oil-for-Food Programme had been paid to Galloway's then-wife
Amineh Abu-Zayyad. Galloway reiterated his denial of the charges and challenged the U.S. Senate committee to charge him with perjury. He claimed Coleman's motive was revenge over the embarrassment of his appearance before the committee in May.
Controversies at university debating societies
On 2 November 2006,
The Times reported that Galloway was in a fracas at the
Oxford Union. He was there to discuss his book. () In his speech to the Union, Galloway claimed "that democracy in Cuba is more “free” than in the UK", and when questioned on this, he mentioned "that Oxford students are too privileged to understand what he was talking about". Three former
state school students who met him afterwards and disputed this description, allege that Galloway said: "I don’t represent anyone’s views. I represent me. I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks."
Sectarian attack at airport
On 10 June 2007, Galloway claimed that he was the victim of a
sectarian attack at
Glasgow Airport. He believes that his attackers were on the way home from attending an
Orange Order parade in London and that they attacked him because he is a
Celtic fan. However, no arrest was made in connection with this.
Support for the Soviet Union
Galloway once stated "I am on the
anti-imperialist left... If you are asking did I support the
Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe."
Forbidden to enter Canada
On 20 March 2009, Galloway was advised by the
Canada Border Services Agency he was deemed inadmissible to Canada on "security grounds" due to his involvement in the
Viva Palestina aid convoy to the
Gaza Strip following the
2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. The Gaza Strip is governed by
Hamas, which is on Canada's list of terrorist organisations. This resulted from a personal donation of £25,000 made by Galloway ten days earlier. The Canadians ruled (and maintained on appeal) that this constituted explicit support for Hamas, although Galloway argued it was not the case as the money was intended to be used for aid purposes.
Galloway was on a lecture tour of North America, and was due to speak on war prevention and Gaza for a United Church congregation in Toronto, as well as for events in Mississauga, Ottawa and Montreal. Galloway was also described as an "infandous street-corner Cromwell" by Alykhan Velshi, a former lobbyist for the American Enterprise Institute who was then working as communications director for Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. Galloway described the ban as "idiotic" and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was accused by Jack Layton, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP), of being a "minister of censorship."
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the group who invited Galloway to Canada, sought an emergency injunction to allow for his entry into Canada for the first speech in Toronto citing their rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression. Justice Luc Martineau cited non-citizens "do not have an unqualified right to enter in Canada. The admission of a foreign national to this country is a privilege determined by statute, regulation or otherwise, and not as a matter of right." The judge also noted "a proper factual record and the benefit of full legal argument...are lacking at the present time."
Galloway was allowed entry into Canada in October 2010, after a judge concluded that the original ban had been undertaken for political reasons. He continued to criticize Jason Kenney, saying that the minister had "damaged Canada's reputation" and had used "anti-terrorism" as a means of suppressing political debate. Galloway has also threatened to sue the Canadian government for the banning incident.
Forbidden to enter Egypt
On 8 January 2010, Galloway and his colleague
Ron McKay were deported from Egypt immediately upon entry from
Gaza. He had been attempting to help take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip. They were driven by the police to the airport and put on a plane to London. The previous day an Egyptian soldier had been killed during clashes at the border with
Hamas loyalists. Several Palestinians were also injured.
Publishing / media activities
Autobiography
His autobiography,
I'm Not The Only One, was published on 28 April 2004. The book's title is a quotation from the song "
Imagine" by
John Lennon. Armed Forces Minister
Adam Ingram applied for an interim interdict to prevent the book's publication. Ingram asserted that Galloway's text, which stated that Ingram "played the flute in a sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist
Orange Order band", was in bad faith and defamatory, although Ingram's lawyers conceded that for a year as a teenager he had been a member of a junior Orange Lodge in Barlanark, Glasgow, and had attended three parades. The Judge,
Lord Kingarth, decided to refuse an interim interdict, that the balance of the arguments favoured Galloway's publisher, and that the phrase "sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist" was fair comment on that organisation. Although Ingram was not and never had been a flute-player, the defending advocate observed that "playing the flute carries no obvious defamatory imputation ... it is not to the discredit of anyone that he plays the flute." The judge ruled that Ingram should pay the full court costs of the hearing.
Fidel Castro Handbook
Galloway also published the
Fidel Castro Handbook, a biography of the former
Cuban President in 2006 (MQ Publications. ISBN 1-84072-688-1).
Friction Books
In 2005 Galloway established Friction Books, an imprint for fiction and non-fiction, with longstanding associate
Ron McKay. Friction claimed its purpose was to publish
"books that burn, books that cause controversy and get people talking". it has released at least two books:
Paco Ignacio Taibo II novel
An Easy Thing and
Topple the Mighty by
Leon Kuhn and
Colin Gile.
Celebrity Big Brother
In January 2006 Galloway appeared on the
fourth series of the reality show for three weeks.
Big Brother's Big Mouth
Galloway acted as the guest presenter for the
E4 companion programme to the 2007 edition of
Big Brother,
Big Brother's Big Mouth, from 5 June to 8 June 2007.
talkSPORT
| Show name | The Mother of All Talk Shows |
|---|
| Italic title | no |
|---|
| Format | Political discussion |
|---|
| Runtime | Friday 22:00-01:00Saturday 22:00-01:00 |
|---|
| Country | UK |
|---|
| Language | English |
|---|
| Home station | talkSPORT |
|---|
| Syndicates | Talk 107 |
|---|
| Presenter | George Galloway |
|---|
| Rec location | Central London |
|---|
| Opentheme | The theme from Top Cat |
|---|
On 11 March 2006, Galloway started broadcasting on Britain's biggest commercial radio station, the UTV-owned talkSPORT, and two weeks later started a simultaneous broadcast on Talk 107, TalkSPORT's Edinburgh-based sister station.
Billed as "The Mother Of All Talk Shows", Galloway began every broadcast by playing the theme from the Top Cat cartoon series. UTV said that Galloway was pulling in record call numbers and the highest ever ratings for its weekend slots, even pulling in more than the station's Football First programme.
On 3 January 2009, after Galloway was manhandled by riot police in London at the demonstration in protest over the Israeli offensive in the Gaza strip, the director of programming replaced Galloway with Ian Collins, saying that this would allow for more balanced reporting of the situation.
Galloway halted presenting the show on March 27, 2010, due to campaign commitments in the 2010 UK General Election. During this time, he was replaced by Mike Graham.
In August 2010, Galloway returned to the radio station with a new show bearing a similar format to his original, but this time titled The Week with George Galloway, described by the station as a "No-holds barred review of the past seven days around the world". The show is broadcast during the 10pm-1am slot on Friday nights .
The Real Deal
On 21 May 2007, Galloway began presenting a programme titled
The Real Deal on
Raj TV, a satellite channel, broadcasting on Sky 171, primarily aimed at the British Asian community. Following a break, the show was resurrected on 10 February 2008 on
Press TV, a
Tehran-based news channel controlled by the government of Iran.
Comment
Galloway also hosts a 45-minute weekly current affairs show that invites the viewers to engage in lively debate on international political issues. The show is also filmed and broadcast from the London-bureau of Iranian state-controlled news channel Press TV. In 2009, the british telecommunications regulator
Ofcom criticised Galloway "for breaking impartiality rules" regarding his coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and accused him of promoting "Iranian propaganda".
Mazher Mahmood
In March 2006 Galloway claimed in a statement that
Mazher Mahmood, an undercover reporter for the
News of the World who uses a disguise as a
sheikh to frame celebrities, targeted him in an alleged sting operation. Galloway claims that Mahmood and an accomplice tried but failed to implicate him in illegal party funding, and to agree with
anti-Semitic statements. Galloway wrote to the
Metropolitan police commissioner and the
Speaker of the House of Commons about the incident. He also released photographs of Mahmood and revealed other aspects of his activities. The
News of the World lost a
High Court action to prevent publication of photographs of Mahmood.
Asian Voice
Galloway has been involved in several
publishing companies. He owned
Asian Voice, which published a newspaper called
East from 1996. It later transpired that the Pakistan Government was funding Galloway's company Asian Voice with several hundred-thousand-pounds. "Documents show that the Pakistan government agreed an initial budget for the weekly newspaper of £547,000. According to a memorandum dated 2 January 1996, the Pakistan government proposed to "covertly sponsor" the publication, with money allocated to "the Secret Fund of the High Commissioner for Pakistan in the UK as a special grant for the project". The Commons Committee cleared Galloway of any wrongdoing in this matter.
Daily Record column
As of 25 June 2007, Galloway has contributed a weekly column in the
Daily Record giving his views on politics and popular culture. He used this column to reveal he is considering running for a seat in the Scottish Parliament in the May 2011 election.
The Guardian
Galloway is also a regular contributor to
The Guardian, writing for both the newspaper and
Comment Is Free, its sister political opinion forum at
guardian.co.uk.
TV and film appearances
INN World Report (US) (2009) (TV)
Question Time (numerous appearances) - Panellist answering questions
As a policeman, in
Ugly Rumours "
War", 25 February 2007
Our Story Our Voice (2007)
The Friday Night Project (2007)
Offside (BBC Scotland football talk show) (2006-12-04)
30 Greatest Political Comedies (2006) (TV)
The Wright Stuff - Panellist
The Late Late Show (1 programmes, 2006)
Richard & Judy (2 programmes, 2006)
Tubridy Tonight (2006)
Celebrity Big Brother (23 episodes, 2006)
Have I Got News For You - Panellist (2003)
As an orator
According to the
Boston Globe, Galloway is "known, even in the highly articulate world of British politics, for his memorable turns of phrase", whereas
The Times finds that he has "the gift of the Glasgow gab, a love of the stage and an inexhaustible fund of self-belief."
The Guardian finds him "renowned for his colourful rhetoric and combative debating style" and the
Spectator once awarded him Debater of the Year.).
See also
Oil-for-Food Program Hearings
References
External links
Video
George Galloway interviews David Strahan author of “The Last Oil Shock – A Survival Gide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man”
Galloway speaks at Manchester Town Hall, UK, 29 February 2004 about launch of Respect. Video, Chris Edwards
Galloway speaks in Manchester, UK, 22 November 2003 on future of anti-war movement. Video, Chris Edwards
Galloway speaks in Manchester, UK, 8 November 2003 about next steps for the anti-war movement. Video, Chris Edwards
George Galloway speaks in Manchester, UK, 9 May 2003 about media witch hunt. Video, Chris Edwards
The Fruitceller - Huge Video archive for the Anti-War Movement
Galloway talking about war with Iran
Galloway speaks at Manchester University, UK, 26 November 2006 about British politics after Blair. Video, Chris Edwards
Galloway speaks in Manchester, UK, 21 February 2006 about local elections. Video, Chris Edwards
Galloways speaks in Manchester, UK, 6 October 2004 about European Social Forum. Video, Chris Edwards
INN World Report Interviews Galloway US, 16 February 2009
Documentary featuring George Galloway about the 2010 election in Poplar and Limehouse by Catch21
General
GeorgeGalloway.com Official website.
RESPECT RENEWAL Official party website
RESPECT - The Unity Coalition The previous Official party website.
Official George Galloway MySpace page
CouchTripper Unofficial forum, high quality downloads & large archive of Galloway on radio and TV, where other sites come to stock up.
George Galloway's talkSPORT page
Galloway downloads on SpideredNews.com. George Galloway media downloads (including talkSPORT shows).
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: George Galloway MP
TheyWorkForYou.com - George Galloway MP
The Public Whip - George Galloway MP voting record
George Galloway interviewed by eyebrow magazine September 2007
mp3s of Galloway speaking at London International Peace Conference, 10 December 2005
Galloway's participation at the International Peace Conference December 2005
IMDB Profile
Christopher Hitchens' attack leaflet of selected Galloway statements, including quotes admiring unelected dictators.
George Galloway Is Gruesome, Not Gorgeous by Christopher Hitchens, Slate.com, 13 September 2005.
: (Prequel to Galloway vs Hitchens debate held at
CUNY)
Articles and news reports
George Galloway's interview with The Third Estate
Galloway, George Respect at the Crossroads
Channel 4 News - ''Galloway:"I'm no punchbag" - July 2007
FactCheck - ''"That's a fact." With all due respect, George... - April 2005
Al-Jiran. Iraqi author Fadhil Rashad: George Galloway, You Will Be Tried Just Like Your Friend and Benefactor Saddam Hussein. 30 November 2005.
The Independent George Galloway vs. Christopher Hitchens, 16 September 2005.
Zirin, Dave. Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington. Znet 13 September 2005
Sunday Herald George Galloway - personal interview 7 August 2005.
BBC. George Galloway interview on "What's the problem?". 10 June 2005.
McKay, Ron. Galloway Beats New Labour and the Ghost Voters. Sunday Herald. 8 May 2005.
Greenslade, Roy. No need for balance. The Guardian. 13 May 2005.
BBC. Galloway Wins Saddam Libel Case. 2 December 2004.
Abu Dhabi TV. ">British MP Galloway: US and British Governments Will Burn in "Hell-Fires". 20 November 2004.
The Scotsman. Galloway Iraq appeal cleared of impropriety over funds. 29 June 2004.
The Guardian. Special Report: George Galloway Expulsion from the Labour Party. 25 April 2004.
Al Jazeera. So what do I believe in? transcript of speech. 30 October 2003.
Watson, Richard. Why the MP went begging to Pakistan. The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 2003.
The Scotsman. Indefatigably yours. Personal interview, 19 May 2003.
New Worker. End the blockade on Iraq 1998 interview
Alliance for Workers Liberty. ">Would You Vote For This Man?: "Respect" and George Galloway. Solidarity 3/70. 31 March 2005.
Tatchell, Peter. Galloway's Iranian propaganda? The Guardian, 26 March 2008.
US Congressional testimony & related
mp3s of Galloway's speeches made during his tour of US, 13-24 December 2005
Unspinning the US’s web of lies against Galloway, Socialist Worker, 5 November 2005
mp3 of George Galloway vs. Christopher Hitchens, 14 September 2005
Galloway lied over Iraqi oil payments, says Congress report, Rupert Cornwell, The Independent, 25 October 2005
Christopher Hitchens' documentation of the Oil for Food issue, September 2005
Unmitigated Galloway, Christopher Hitchens, Weekly Standard, 30 May 2005
"Galloway and the mother of all invective", The Guardian newspaper, 18 May 2005
Link to full video recording of hearing in this BBC News report:Galloway takes on US oil accusers, BBC, 17 May 2005
UK's Galloway blisters US policy on Iraq on MSNBC Crooks & Liars: audio and video
Two Fox News reports: one short and sceptical; the other is a longer recording of Galloway's testimony, Fox News, 18 May 2005
Transcript of Galloway's comments, CNN
Full Text of Galloway's statements, Times online
Galloway's statements including senators questions
US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 12 May 2005, "Report on oil allocations granted to Charles Pasqua & George Galloway"
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