Rochdale by-election result as George Galloway storms to victory and businessman David Tully comes second

One Greater Manchester town is waking up to a new MP, and his name is George Galloway.

The build up to the election day in Rochdale has been ‘chaotic’, ‘a shambles’, and ‘a circus’ if you listen to locals. The former Labour Party member and Celebrity Big Brother candidate George Galloway threw his famous fedora hat in the ring in order to punish his former party – and he has certainly delivered.

As soon as that massive win of 12,335 votes came in, the Workers Party of Britain man launched a direct threat towards Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. 

“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” he opened. “There will be a high price for the role that you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip.

“Rochdale councillors, I put you on notice that I intend to start a grand alliance that will change Rochdale for the better, just 12 weeks from now at the Local Election.

“Every Muslim is bitterly angry at Keir Starmer and his Labour Party, he too would be very foolish if he did not realise that millions of other citizens of our country are too. Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two cheeks of the same backside, and they both got well and truly smacked tonight.”

This result would have been deemed a shock a few weeks ago, in the end it almost became inevitable when asking various local political heavyweight. This is a fitting end for what has been a whirlwind of an election which actually saw three ex-Labour men compete – if you count Azhar Ali.

The other was the previous Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who announced himself as the candidate for Reform UK. The two former Labour men coming out of the woodwork were just the first two of many twists to come. The once ‘safe Labour seat’ suddenly was lost when they found themselves without a candidate. The Lancashire County councillor had to apologise for ‘deeply offensive’ claims he made about Israel at the end of last year.

Despite saying his comments were ‘ignorant and false’, he still had Labour support removed. A few days previously ‘regrettable’ historic tweets from Green Party’s candidate Guy Otten came to light. This led to his party’s support being removed and he ‘left the stage’. Both incidents happened within the space of a week.

Despite both Guy Otten and Azhar Ali no longer getting the backing from their respective parties, they still appeared on the ballot next to the logos that selected them originally.

A total of 11 candidates were on the ballot paper, and the side note in this story is the success of the independents. David Tully, a local businessman found himself getting the second largest sum of votes, really driving home that feeling that locals wanted someone that truly cares for the area. 

When you add Michael Howarth, Billy Howarth, Mark Coleman and even Azhar Ali, that is almost half the original list of candidates who were independent candidates.  This is not the last we will see of some though as they are looking ahead to plans for the future, maybe targeting the Local Elections in May.

Rochdale by-election full result

• George Galloway (Workers Party): 12,335
• David Tully (Ind): 6,638
• Paul Ellison (Cons): 3,731
• Azhar Ali (Formerly Labour): 2,402
• Iain Donaldson (Lib Dem): 2,164
• Simon Danczuk (Reform): 1,968
• William Howarth (Ind): 523
• Mark Coleman (Ind): 455
• Guy Otten (Grn) 436
• Michael Howarth (Ind): 246
• Ravin Subortna (Monster Raving Looney): 209