George Galloway stood as a pro-Palestinian candidate and won the Rochdale seat by 12,335 votes.
A controversial left-wing British politician has scored a landslide victory in a parliamentary by-election on a pledge to help Gaza.
George Galloway won the seat in the northern English town of Rochdale after a tough election campaign in which the Labor Party withdrew its support from the candidate over his anti-Israel comments.
Mr Galloway received 12,335 votes, followed by second-place finisher David Tully (an independent candidate) with 6,638 votes. Former Labor candidate Azhar Ali came fourth after the opposition withdrew its support after he was recorded as supporting conspiracy theories about Israel.
“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Mr Galloway said on Friday, a Labor leader who had initially rejected calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people have been killed in Israeli shelling over the past five months. He mentioned this and said:
“You have paid and will continue to pay a high price for your role in enabling, encouraging and covering the catastrophe currently unfolding in the Gaza Strip. ” he said.
Mr Galloway, head of the British Labor Party, accused both Labor and the Conservative Party of supporting Israel as they run pro-Palestinian campaigns in constituencies with large Muslim populations.
“Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are the same back cheek and they both really improved tonight here at Rochdale,” he said in his victory speech.
Israel's devastating war on Gaza was a key issue in elections where local concerns typically dominate.
