Galloway’s victory holds lessons for Labour

“This, the most sensational victory in British by-election history”, George Galloway began as he commanded the podium following a triumphant result in Bradford West in the early hours of Friday morning, “represents the Bradford Spring”. Grossly inflated metaphor aside – his return to Parliament is hardly likely to herald a revolutionary overthrow of the ‘tyrannical’ Coalition government as Respect sweep to power in 2015 – Galloway was right to lionise his victory as a significant political moment, even if he was typically self-important to do so himself.

Despite the best efforts of a wounded, defeated Labour Party to convince us otherwise, this was more than a mere political sideshow. Winning a former Labour stronghold with a majority of over 10,000 is no freak result; there was something meaningful about the West Yorkshire electorate’s “total rejection of the three major parties” in favour of a radical alternative. George Galloway, the man forever etched in the memory of millions for his immortal inquiry “would you like me to be the cat?” is back, having used up another of his nine lives.

Despite his somewhat eccentric personal life, his alleged dealings with a certain Iraqi dictator and a brand of social illiberalism which I find myself entirely at odds with, I have something of a soft spot for ‘Gorgeous’ George. Galloway was, for better or for worse, a key player in awakening my own political consciousness. His twice-weekly, three hour long political discussion radio show on talkSPORT became a must-listen during my mid-to-late-teens, as he riled listeners with his firebrand denouncement of mainstream party politics and, of course, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq for which he believes Tony Blair should face a war crimes tribunal.

Vital to an understanding of what makes George Galloway tick is that he revels in the status of Labour Party pariah. Though he was eventually expelled from the party, in truth his heart left Labour the moment Tony Blair scrapped Clause 4 in 1995. Galloway considers Blairites to be traitors to the Labour tradition; on a recent edition of Question Time, for instance, he accused Times columnist David Aaronovitch of playing the role of “a servant to the Blair government”, chastising him for his transformation from avowed Marxist to writing for a Murdoch newspaper. Aaronovitch’s droll response? “I was a communist, but you were still to the left of me, George”.

This is the key facet of Galloway’s appeal. His vehement opposition to the culture of New Labour is not only the reason why he was once again elected to Parliament in Bradford West, but it further illustrates the significance of his presence on the green benches of the Commons. Commentators have long argued that Labour has in recent years resorted to scrapping with the Tories over mere millimetres of centre ground, but in the weeks following what Galloway described as a “cataclysmic” Budget authored by an “omnishabolic” Coalition government, Labour has gained traction in setting out its stall ever-so-slightly further to the left. Already, it is paying political dividends.

This is not to say that Labour should look to tack to the left in the coming months and years –it is widely accepted that you simply cannot win an election from beyond the centre-left in British politics. But Galloway will act as a rabid dog tugging at the trouser leg of those in the Labour Party who are afraid to take the bold decisions necessary to reinvigorate support for the party. “Until Labour becomes Labour again”, he says, “until they can find the vocabulary, and express the values that made Labour great… I was in Labour for 36 years, because I believed in Labour, and I want to sway people to believe in Labour again”.

To some, George Galloway is an anathema; to many, he will always be the man who made a fool of himself on Celebrity Big Brother. To others, he is an entertaining half hour on YouTube (search for ‘George Galloway savages Sky News’ or ‘George Galloway vs. The US Senate’ if you’re looking for a break from writing your dissertation). But to those of us who wonder whether Ed Miliband will ever return the Labour Party to government, Galloway’s understanding of what it really is to be on the left of British politics is genuinely important. Labour need people like Galloway to remind them that if they look deep into their souls, they are not so similar to the Tories, after all.