George Galloway exploded at an ITV news reporter after he was quizzed about his commitments following his controversial election as the new MP for Rochdale.
Officials confirmed the former Labour MP had pipped the Greater Manchester constituency on Thursday evening following disappointing performances from the UK’s established parties.
But, rather than dedicating his win to locals, the 69-year-old Workers Party of Britain leader used his victory speech to declare: “This is for Gaza.”
His statement quickly drew controversy, and questions from the general public, with journalists drawing him up on the comments.
One question from a local news correspondent prompted a dramatic reaction from the MP.
Andrew Misra, the political correspondent for ITV News Granada, the broadcaster’s northwest England regional service, asked Mr Galloway: “Do you really care about Rochdale?”
In response, the MP launched a series of personal attacks that culminated in him calling the interviewer “a fool”.
He said: “I hope you didn’t practise that question, did you? You fool, are you a student journalist?”
“After a brief pause, he added: “The people just elected me, how dare you.”
Posting the clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, the journalist wrote: “After @georgegalloway declared his Rochdale win ‘for Gaza’, I asked him how much he really cares about Rochdale…”
He added: “That didn’t go down too well.”
Before the result, Mr Galloway was the bookies’ favourite to win the Rochdale byelection, with odds of 4/7.
The win has propelled him back into the House of Commons almost nine years, after Labour’s Naz Shah reversed the Scot’s 10,000 majority in Bradford West at the 2015 general election.
