Labour could lose a by-election over the issue of Palestine
It is struggling to hold onto Muslim voters in Batley and Spen
GEORGE GALLOWAY is sitting in Starbucks, close to the abandoned nightclub that serves as his campaign base. “Fighting Labour is our number one target,” he declares. An MP for Labour before he was expelled in 2003, Mr Galloway is a political opportunist with a habit of causing trouble at tricky moments. He handed Labour surprise defeats in Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005, and Bradford West in 2012. On July 1st, standing in Batley and Spen for a new Workers Party of Britain (founded to “defend the achievements of the USSR, China, Cuba etc”), he may cause a third upset, albeit by splitting Labour’s vote rather than by winning himself.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “West Yorkshire Bank”
Britain June 26th 2021
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- After Brexit, devolution in Northern Ireland is in a parlous state
- Labour could lose a by-election over the issue of Palestine
- Eels are in crisis, but hope is coming on-stream
- The triple-lock rule poses a post-pandemic problem
- Britain proposes—again—to privatise Channel 4
- Britain, a diverse country for decades, is now superdiverse
- Britain’s government says it wants an economic boom
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