George Galloway, Leftist Firebrand, Wins U.K. Seat in Blow to Labour Party

As he celebrated victory early Friday after winning a parliamentary election, George Galloway, a veteran left-wing firebrand, directed his attack squarely at the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party.

“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Mr. Galloway said, wearing the fedora hat that has become his trademark. “You have paid, and you will pay, a high price for the role you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on.”

Mr. Galloway won the election — for a seat in Rochdale, north of Manchester, that had previously been held by Labour — after a chaotic campaign that became emblematic of the anger that has swept through British politics over the war in Gaza.

Voting took place on Thursday to replace Tony Lloyd, a Labour Party lawmaker who had represented the district but died of blood cancer in January. Mr. Galloway achieved a clear victory, with 12,335 votes.

Mr. Galloway, founder of the far-left Workers Party of Britain, once represented Labour in Parliament, but he was forced out of the party in 2003 over his outspoken criticism of the Iraq war.

Victory in Rochdale was the latest act of revenge from a maverick politician who had run in several previous elections against his former party, sometimes successfully. Mr. Galloway has a long history of fierce and at times inflammatory rhetoric, and he has a flair for generating publicity.

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