George Galloway

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a Scottish-born politician, author and broadcaster known for his left-wing views. First elected as a Labour Member of Parliament in 1987 (later Respect), since a by-election in 2024, he has served as the MP for Rochdale representing the Workers Party of Britain.

1987–1989

 * I travelled and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women—some of whom were known carnally to me. I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece. And if the British public and BBC Scotland think that's of interest they are welcome to broadcast it.
 * Quoted in "George and his dragons", The Herald (Glasgow, 28 September 2007), an excerpt from David Morley's Gorgeous George: The Life and Adventures of George Galloway, London: Politicos, 2007.
 * Comments at a War on Want press conference in Glasgow (September 1987) responding to pointed questions about whether he had traveled there with a woman. The reference is to a conference on the Greek island of Mykonos during 1985.


 * Conservative Back Bench Members have an unseemly and shabby desire to rubbish and eventually smash a section of the British work force that has served this country well. ... There are few less pleasant sights than to see well-upholstered, sleek and wealthy Conservative Members insulting a body of men who work hard for a living and who have done so for many centuries.
 * Speech in the House of Commons (24 May 1989), against the abolition of the National Dock Labour Board.

1990s

 * All faiths must be prepared to be as rigorously tested as each other and none can expect a special hiding place behind the law.
 * As cited in "We ask MPs where they stand", The Independent on Sunday (11 February 1990), p. 2
 * In the UK, blasphemy was still a criminal offence which Galloway saw as being an "anachronism". The issue was current because of The Satanic Verses controversy.

They have a right to expect some genuflection towards what they feel. To publish a paperback would cause an unnecessary distress to a large and significant and vulnerable section of our society.
 * I'm arguing this should not be published, not because of the threats but because of the offence that it has caused to the majority of Muslims.
 * Commenting on The Satanic Verses controversy. As cited in "We ask MPs where they stand", The Independent on Sunday (11 February 1990), p. 2


 * The Tories and their friends are laughing all the way to the bank at the disunity in Scotland. We must extend the hand of friendship to the SNP.
 * Reaction to the results of the 1992 general election (10 April 1992), quoted in The Times (11 April 1992), p. 7.


 * Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability, and I want you to know that we are with you, hatta al-nasr, hatta al-nasr, hatta al-Quds until victory, until victory, until Jerusalem.
 * Quoted in "George and his dragons" The Herald (Glasgow) (28 September 2007), an excerpt from David Morley's Gorgeous George: The Life and Adventures of George Galloway'', London: Politico's, 2007. This source also states "Galloway claims that this quote has been taken out of context and is part of a longer salute to the Iraqi people, not just the dictator."


 * We are being asked to sell the banner which has flown in Scotland with great success, a banner which is showing no sign of becoming unpopular.
 * Speech to a meeting of the Labour Party in Inverness (10 March 1995), quoted in The Times (11 March 1995) p. 8.

2002–2003

 * I am on the anti-imperialist left.
 * If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life.
 * Simon Hattenstone "Saddam and me", The Guardian (16 September 2002).


 * [On Tony Blair and George W. Bush] They have lied to the British air force and navy when they said the battle of Iraq would be very quick and easy. They attacked Iraq like wolves. They attacked civilians. It is better for Blair and Bush to stop this crime and this catastrophe. It is time for them to return to the UN security council and give diplomacy a chance.
 * Abu Dhabi TV (28 March 2003), as quoted in The Guardian (1 April 2003).


 * The wolves are Bush and Blair, not the soldiers. The soldiers are lions led by donkeys, sent to kill and be killed.
 * "Galloway accuses PM of Iraq 'lies'", The Guardian (1 April 2003).


 * [On David Blunkett] By a mile, it is the most illiberal, vindictive, biliously foaming Home Secretary of modern times. He has done more to destroy the concept of Labour being a party of equality and fairness than any other person... I hope his guide dog savages his ankles.
 * Quoted in "Those we have loved and loathed", The Independent (30 December 2003).

2004

 * [Referring to the The Christian Science Monitor] This newspaper published on its front page in every country in the world that I had taken $10m from Saddam Hussein. That was a grave and serious libel...Of course the documents were a forgery and a newspaper of that importance ought to have made the effort, both morally and legally, to establish the authenticity of those documents before they published them.
 * Quoted in John Plunkett Galloway wins damages for Saddam slur" The Guardian (19 March 2004)


 * I'm strongly against abortion. I believe life begins at conception, and therefore unborn babies have rights. I think abortion is immoral.
 * Interviewed by Deborah Ross, as cited in "George Galloway: It's not easy being Gorgeous", The Independent (5 April 2004).


 * How can you have a real election with hundreds of thousands of Crusader soldiers occupying the country, drawing up the electoral law, deciding who is allowed to take part in the elections, and utterly dominating the political life of the country?
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV, (20 November 2004).


 * The people who invaded and destroyed Iraq and have murdered more than a million Iraqi people by sanctions and war will burn in Hell in the hell-fires, and their name in history will be branded as killers and war criminals for all time. Fallujah is a Guernica, Falluajah is a Stalingrad, and Iraq is in flames as a result of the actions of these criminals.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (20 November 2004).


 * If I had lost I would have been homeless, I would have had everything I possess taken from me and would have been bankrupted and forced out of public office. In those circumstances I don't feel in any way happy about the award of £150,000.
 * Quoted in "Galloway wins Saddam libel case" BBC News (2 December 2004)

2005

 * Oona King voted to kill a lot of women in the last few years. Many of them had much darker skins than her.
 * Responding to question about challenging an MP of African heritage, at the hustings in Bow & Bethnal Green during the 2005 general election, cited in "King and Galloway clash again" Evening Standard (10 April 2005).


 * Why don't you go and take some more drugs, you druggie?
 * Johann Hari "Eastenders in turmoil, a fatwa on Galloway, and the most dangerous campaign in Britain", The Independent (22 April 2005).


 * You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.
 * "Galloway v the US Senate: transcript of statement", The Times (18 May 2005).
 * Testimony before the US Senate on 17 May 2005.


 * I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his.
 * "Galloway v the US Senate: transcript of statement", The Times (18 May 2005).
 * Testimony before the US Senate (17 May 2005).


 * I am speaking for tens of millions, and maybe more, around the world, who know the truth about Iraq. Who know that the real criminals are in Washington. Not in the United Nations. The real criminals are in the White House, not in the Elysee Palace. The real criminals are in the Congress, not in the anti-war movement.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (1 June 2005).


 * Bush, and Blair, and the prime minister of Japan, and Berlusconi, these people are criminals, and they are responsible for mass murder in the world, for the war, and for the occupation, through their support for Israel, and through their support for a globalized capitalist economic system, which is the biggest killer the world has ever known. It has killed far more people than Adolf Hitler.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (1 June 2005).
 * At this time, Junichiro Koizumi was the "prime minister of Japan".


 * I can't mention, I'm sorry to say, any Arab leader... Where is the... Nasser? Where is the Arab leader who will stand up and tell these people the truth? This is what we are waiting for.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (1 June 2005).


 * We want to make reparation to the Palestinian people for the crimes of Balfour which were committed in the building behind me, when one person, on behalf of one country, promised a second people the lands of a third people - the Palestinians.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (1 June 2005).


 * We are determined that we should stop the privatization of basic services of the British people. We are determined to defend the liberty of the British people which is being taken away day by day under the name of anti-terrorism. Ancient freedoms, which we had for hundreds of years, are being taken away from us under the name of the war on terror, when the real big terrorists are the governments of Britain and the United States.
 * Interview on Abu Dhabi TV (1 June 2005).


 * We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.
 * "Statement on the London bombings by George Galloway on behalf of Respect" Socialist Worker (7 July 2005).


 * Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners - Jerusalem and Baghdad. The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will.
 * The daughters are crying for help, and the Arab world is silent. And some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters.
 * From an interview broadcast by Syrian television, as cited in "Galloway 'put troops lives at risk'", The Telegraph (3 August 2005).


 * [I]t can be said that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.
 * Interview on Al Jazeera (late July 2005), as cited in "Galloway pours petrol on the flames" The Telegraph (5 August 2005).


 * Some believe that those aeroplanes on September 11 came out of a clear blue sky. I believe they came out of a swamp of hatred created by us. I believe that because the total, complete unending and bottomless support for General Sharon’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
 * Cited by James Bone "Galloway and Hitchens get down and very dirty", The Times (15 September 2005)
 * During a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * You know, Mr Hitchens, you are a court jester - not in Camelot like other miserable liberals before you, but in the court of the Bourbon Bushes. You start off being the liberal mouthpiece for one of the most reactionary governments this country has ever known and you end up a mouthpiece and apologist for these miserable malevolent incompetents who cannot even pick up the bodies of their own citizens in New Orleans.
 * Cited by James Bone "Galloway and Hitchens get down and very dirty", The Times (15 September 2005)
 * During a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * People like Mr Hitchens are willing to fight to the last drop of other people’s blood...How I wish he would put on a tin hat and pick up a gun and go and fight himself.
 * Cited by James Bone "Galloway and Hitchens get down and very dirty", The Times (15 September 2005)
 * During a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * Mr Hitchens's policy has succeeded in making 10,000 new Bin Ladens.
 * Cited by David Usborne "Hitchens vs Galloway: The big debate", The Independent (16 September 2005).
 * During a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * What you have witnessed [since Christopher Hitchens’s opposition to the 1991 invasion of Iraq] is something unique in natural history: the first ever metamorphosis of a butterfly into a slug.
 * Cited by David Usborne "Hitchens vs Galloway: The big debate", The Independent (16 September 2005).
 * During a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * I think we have generated as much light as we are going to...And as much heat as we ought to.
 * Cited by David Usborne "Hitchens vs Galloway: The big debate", The Independent (16 September 2005).
 * Concluding remark after a debate with Christopher Hitchens (14 September 2005).


 * All dignified people in the world, whether Arabs or Muslims or others with dignity, are very proud of the speech made by president Bashar al-Assad a few days ago here in Damascus.
 * For me he is the last Arab ruler, and Syria is the last Arab country. It is the fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs, and that's why I'm proud to be here.
 * "Galloway heaps praise on Syrian regime", The Scotsman (18 November 2005).
 * From a lecture at the University of Damascus, as broadcast by Al-Jazeera TV (13 November 2005).


 * Syria is being threatened - because she will not betray the Palestinian resistance, because she will not betray the Lebanese resistance, Hizbullah, because she will not sign a shameful surrender-peace with General Sharon, and above all - more than any of these others - because Syria will not allow her country to be used as a military base for America to crush the resistance in Iraq.
 * MemriTV
 * From a lecture at the University of Damascus, as broadcast by Al-Jazeera TV (13 November 2005).


 * So I say to you, citizens of the last Arab country, this is a time for courage, for unity, for wisdom, for determination, to face these enemies with the dignity your president has shown, and I believe, God willing, we will prevail and triumph, wa-salam aleikum.
 * MemriTV
 * From a lecture at the University of Damascus, as broadcast by Al-Jazeera TV (13 November 2005).


 * This murder of Hariri was deliberately planned and executed precisely to implicate Syria and to set in train the events which have unfolded.
 * From a lecture delivered at the University of Damascus (13 November 2005), as cited in "Galloway heaps praise on Syrian regime", The Scotsman (18 November 2005).
 * Referring to the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a lecture televised by Al-Jazeera TV. The report by the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission, as headed by investigator Detlev Mehlis (known as the Mehlis report), implicated Syria in Hariri's murder.

2006–2007

 * Now, would you like me to be the cat?
 * As cited in "Galloway 'cat' act sparks anger" BBC News (13 January 2006).
 * Spoken to Rula Lenska in an attempt to test if "humans can communicate with animals" in Celebrity Big Brother


 * Pipe down Mr Indignation. We'll see what the viewers thought of your double standards, your indignation about me and the aplomb with which you become a lying plutocrat in your gentleman's club.
 * As cited in Anita Singh, "Galloway falls out with Big Brother housemates", The Times (24 January 2006).
 * Referring to fellow housemate Samuel Preston while in the Celebrity Big Brother 2006 house.


 * Poor me, poor me, pour me a drink.
 * "Big Brother's history of bother", BBC News (17 January 2007).
 * Taunting Michael Barrymore while in the Celebrity Big Brother 2006 house.


 * I had three goals and all of them were met.
 * Interview in Metro (2 May 2006).
 * Asked whether appearing on Celebrity Big Brother was a mistake.


 * Only a fool has no regrets and I'm not a fool.
 * Interview in Metro (2 May 2006).


 * As for Gordon Brown - I've described him and Blair as two cheeks of the same arse.
 * Column published as "Rescuing something labour from the wreckage", The Guardian (9 May 2006).


 * [Q:] Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq? [...] [A:] Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did.
 * From an Interview in GQ magazine, as cited by Oliver Duff "Galloway says murder of Blair would be 'justified'" The Independent (26 May 2006).


 * I would not support anyone seeking to assassinate the prime minister. That's why I said in the interview I would report to the authorities any such plot that I knew of. What I did make abundantly clear to Piers Morgan in the GQ interview is that I would like to see Tony Blair in front of a war crimes tribunal for sending this country to war illegally and for the appalling human consequences which resulted. That's what I will continue to press for.
 * Responding to criticism of his comments, as cited in "Killing Blair 'morally justifiable', says Galloway", The Guardian (Press Association copy, 26 May 2006). See for confirmation


 * Israel is invading Lebanon and has killed thirty times more Lebanese civilians than have died in Israel, so it’s you who should be justifying the evident bias which is written on every line on your face, and is in every nuance of your voice, and is loaded in every question that you ask.
 * Interview on Sky News (6 August 2006).


 * One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. You are totally wrong in saying that in most people’s eyes Hezbollah are terrorists. In most people’s eyes Israel is a terrorist state. It’s the fact that you cannot comprehend that fact that leads to bias that runs through all of your reporting and every question that you’ve asked me in this interview!
 * Interview on Sky News (6 August 2006).


 * What a silly question! What a silly person you are! Hezbollah is winning the war; you can see on the other half of the screen. Hezbollah is more popular today in Lebanon amongst Christians, amongst Sunnis, amongst Shiite, amongst all Arabs, amongst all Muslims that it has ever been. It’s Israel who’s lost the war, and Bush and Blair for politically organizing the war, who’ve lost politically. This is a defeat of Bush and Blair and Israel. Everybody but you can see it!
 * Interview on Sky News (6 August 2006).


 * You don’t give a damn! You don’t give a damn, you don’t even know about the Palestinian families! You don’t even know that they exist! Tell me the name of one member of the seven members of the same family slaughtered on the beach in Gaza by an Israeli warship. You don’t even know their names! But you know the name of every Israeli soldier who has been taken prisoner in this conflict. Because you believe whether you know it or not that Israeli blood is more valuable than the blood of Lebanese or Palestinians. That’s the truth, and the discerning of your viewers already know it.
 * Interview on Sky News (6 August 2006).
 * After Sky news reporter says about israeli soldiers: "I have to say some people might find it offensive when there are more families mourning their dead."


 * Well, I don’t agree that it’s genocide, but I definitely agree that there’s suffering going on there.
 * Talksport Radio (2 September 2006).
 * Referring to the Darfur region of Sudan.


 * These extremist Islamists locked me in a room and threatened to hang me because we are the democratic alternative to them. We say to young Muslims: we know that you’re angry, you’re right to be angry. But the best way to be angry is to hit the government where it hurts, through politics, through the ballot box, through elections, through engaging with non-Muslims to build a broad front to bring about a change in policies at home and abroad.
 * Talksport Radio (3 September 2006).


 * Christianity doesn't come into it. George Bush and Tony Blair are not Christians. Religious people believe in the prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in the profits and how to get a piece of them. So don't ever confuse this with a war of civilizations.
 * Interview with George Stroumboulopoulos of the CBC's The Hour (20 November 2006).


 * The roots of this problem definitely are in the fact that not enough groups, trends, parties or individual personalities came into Respect [...] Therefore the perception was created that it was an organisation dominated by the SWP, who have form, or dominated by me, or, later, dominated by Muslims.
 * As cited in "Car crash on the left", Red Pepper (December 2007).

2011–2012

 * Hamas won the only democratic election ever held in the Arab world so how they can be tyrants I really don't know [...] I am not in favour of Hamas but I am in favour of democracy.
 * Because I don't believe that the government of Iran is a dictatorship I have no problem about working for Press TV in London which is a British owned television station. I'm not responsible for the government of Ahmedinijad. I'm not responsible for the leadership of Press TV.
 * Speaking to London School of Economics students (7 March 2011), as cited in "George Galloway: Gaza war as bad as WW2", The Jewish Chronicle (9 March 2011).

I mean not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion.
 * Let me tell you, I think that Julian Assange's personal sexual behaviour is something sordid, disgusting, and I condemn it. But ... Even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape. At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it.
 * [One of the women] Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know.
 * It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning.
 * Comments on a video podcast Good night with George Galloway, cited by Alex Hern "George Galloway: Assange is only accused of 'bad sexual etiquette'" New Statesman (20 August 2012).

2013

 * Are you an Israeli? I don't debate with Israelis. I have been misled, sorry I don't recognise Israel and I don't debate with Israelis
 * The Guardian debate at Christ Church, Oxford University concerning Israel in the West Bank (21 February 2013).


 * I refused this evening at Oxford University to debate with an Israeli, a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel. The reason is simple: no recognition, no normalisation. Just boycott, divestment and sanctions, until the apartheid state is defeated. I never debate with Israelis nor speak to their media. If they want to speak about Palestine – the address is the PLO.
 * Facebook post cited in The Guardian Oxford debate about Israel in the West Bank (21 February 2013).


 * Thatcher described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist". I was there. I saw her lips move. May she burn in the hellfires...Tramp the dirt down.
 * The Guardian reaction to the death of former British prime minster Margret Thatcher on Twitter (9 April 2013).


 * We did not suspend our democracy in our darkest hours why are we suspending it now? the fawning over Thatcher had gone too far... This put the tin hat on it the idea that we should suspend a vital part of our democratic process for a party political and private funeral, Mr Churchill didn’t ask for Parliament to be silenced, for confrontations across the House to be forbidden. When our soldiers were being laid waste in the Norway debate, the House of Commons perhaps rose to its finest 20th Century moment. Nobody said: "Our armed forces have suffered a disaster, the House of Commons cannot meet, the clash of ideas cannot be heard, we must muffle the drums and silence ourselves."
 * The Mirror George Galloway blasts cancellation of PMQs for Margaret Thatchers funeral (16 April 2013).


 * I am in the House of Commons every day; I just do not want to vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee
 * Response to poor voting record in the House of Commons (16 April 2013).


 * It's not just people with a percentage of the vote who have the right to speak. All of us have the right to speak. What happened to Farage looked ugly in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. And the SNP I fear will take you down a road where grudge is everything.
 * The Express During an interview on Question time with Nigel Farage condemning the hostility shown by the Scottish people (14 June 2013).


 * It was al Qaeda who used the chemical weapons. Who gave al Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here's my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons.
 * From an appearance on Press TV (August 2013), as cited in "Syria conflict and Commons vote: as it happened", The Telegraph (30 August 2013).
 * In a debate in the House of Commons about the Ghouta chemical attack of 21 August 2013, (later concluded to have been) carried out by the Syrian government, Matthew Offord (Conservative MP for Hendon) asked Galloway about his comments, to which he responded: "I said no such thing."

2015–2017

 * I don’t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration of course [...] But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating. The hyena can bounce on the lion’s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I’m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I’m going off now to plan the next campaign.
 * Quoted by Jenn Selby in "George Galloway blames 'racists and Zionists' for defeat to Naz Shah in Bradford West" The Independent (8 May 2015).
 * Speech at the announcement of the result in Bradford West at the 2015 general election. Galloway was defeated by the Labour candidate Naz Shah.


 * [On Nigel Farage] We are not pals. We are allies in one cause. Like Churchill and Stalin...
 * On Twitter (13 February 2016), as cited in "George Galloway compares relationship with Nigel Farage to Churchill and Stalin", The Independent (21 February 2016).
 * Farage and Galloway were campaigning as part of Grassroots Out, an anti-EU group advocating for Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, in the membership referendum held on 23 June 2016.

The short-listing, which excluded many better candidates, is the latest in a long line of insults delivered by mainstream parties to local communities.
 * The 'All-Asian short-list' hand-picked by Keith Vaz is just not good enough for the people of Gorton, one of the most deprived constituencies in Britain
 * As cited in "George Galloway to stand as Independent in Manchester Gorton by-election", ITV News (21 March 2017).
 * The aborted 2017 Manchester Gorton by-election was scheduled for 4 May, but was cancelled on 20 April after the 2017 general election was announced. Galloway stood as an Independent in the constituency and received 5.7% of the vote.

2019

 * If the Bank of England is “independent” who took the decision to steal Venezuela's gold?
 * Twitter (30 January 2019).


 * During my time in Venezuela... when I looked at the news stands it astonished me that the vast majority of the newspapers and the magazines owned by the rich were spewing out their anti-Chavez propaganda... the people who told you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that we must invade and destroy Iraq... that we must invade & destroy Libya for freedom and democracy... invade and destroy Syria in the interests of human rights & democracy... and many other places in the world.  The same people who told you all these lies are telling you to hate Nicolas Maduro... [they] want to march you into yet another disaster... ask yourself.... If they were lying then why are they telling the truth now?  ...Viva Venezuela, Viva Chavez, Viva Maduro!!
 * 22 min. talk on Twitter (31 January 2019).


 * While the so-called European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to recognise a man in the street as President of Venezuela, the African Union voted unanimously to endorse the presidency of  Maduro and Venezuelan sovereignty. Just think about that...
 * Twitter (31 January 2019).


 * The former MP posted on the social media site after the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday night. He praised Liverpool's win, before adding: "No #Israël flags on the Cup!" - appearing to reference Tottenham's strong links with the Jewish community...He defended the comment, claiming a number of Tottenham fans were flying the flag of Israel in the crowd and it showed an affiliation to a "racist state".
 * Quoted in "George Galloway sacked by talkRADIO over allegedly anti-Semitic tweet" BBC (3 June 2019)


 * [Referring to pro-democracy protesters] These people should know that Hong Kong is China. No country, absolutely no country, will allow an existential threat to emerge on its territory, to its own sovereignty, without responding in a way that brings the situation under control.
 * Interviewed on CGTN (Beijing), cited in "George Galloway defends China over Hong Kong protests" The Times (17 August 2019).

2021–present
Citizens of other states wave their flags, proudly. Why should the people of Britain not be proud of their state? (on Facebook, 26 February 2021)
 * We are not ashamed of our country's flag.
 * I'm voting #Tory with my first vote for the incumbent MSP. And then for myself and [other A4U candidates] on the list. Now THAT is @Alliance4Unity.
 * Facebook entry & tweet, as cited in "George Galloway to vote Tory to try and stop Scottish independence", The National (1 March 2021).


 * As the father of five mixed-race children I treat #Humza's accusation that I'm a racist with contempt.
 * Response to Humza Yousaf, as cited in "Humza Yousaf hits back at George Galloway’s 'race-baiting' comments", The Standard (18 March 2021).
 * Galloway had tweeted about Yousaf: "you’re not more Scottish than me. You're not a Celt like me". Yousaf had accused Galloway of "race-baiting" in return. No A4U candidates were elected at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, and the organisation was wound up in 2022.


 * [M]ake Rochdale great again.
 * Campaign slogan during the 2024 Rochdale by-election, as cited in "", BBC News (1 March 2024).
 * Galloway was elected as the town's member of parliament.


 * Princess Kate has been missing for almost 80 days. There've been three faked photos and millions of rumours. What are the royals covering up? Is she dead or has she downed tools?
 * Tweet/post on X (14 March 2024), as cited in "George Galloway damned by MPs as 'stain on democracy' for 'lurid untruths' about Princess of Wales", The Telegraph (23 March 2024)
 * The princess had abdominal surgery in January 2024 and intended to be absent from public duties until Easter. In a video messaage on 22 March 2024 that cancer had been discovered for which she was undergoing treatment.

2000s

 * The North Korean regime is apparently so bad that even George Galloway has never been there to offer his support. Or maybe that’s because it’s so broke.
 * Opening sentence of David Aaronovitch "You want to know why North Korea did it? It’s their economy, stupid . . ." The Times (10 October 2006).


 * My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Kelvin made his familiar views known in his inimitable way. Some of the good points that he made on the middle east peace process would, I believe, carry more credibility if he had not made a career of being not just an apologist, but a mouthpiece, for the Iraqi regime over many years.
 * Ben Bradshaw "Iraq" Hansard (HoC [Westminster Hall], 6 March 2002), Col. 88WH.
 * In response, Galloway said "[t]he Minister is a liar", and demanded he retract, as did the deputy speaker for Galloway's use of unparliamentary language. The sitting was suspended for ten minutes. In due course,both men withdrew their statements and apologised.


 * But he looks so much like what he is: a thug and a demagogue, the type of working-class-wideboy-and-proud-of-it who is too used to the expenses account, the cars and the hotels - all cigars and back-slapping. He is a very cheap character and a short-arse like a lot of them are, puffed up like a turkey.
 * Christopher Hitchens "Christopher Hitchens: Just what we need - a Baathist fused with a sectarian Muslim" The Independent(19 May 2005)


 * Galloway’s preferred style is that of vulgar ad hominem insult, usually uttered while a rather gaunt crew of minders stands around him. I have a thick skin and a broad back and no bodyguards. He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a "popinjay" (true enough, since its original Webster’s definition means a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest).
 * Christopher Hitchens "George Galloway Is Gruesome, Not Gorgeous" Slate (12 September 2005).


 * [F]resh from his senate triumph, and dressed in his natty beige suit, Galloway always looked the winner. You'll rarely meet a more skilled politician...I was vaguely surprised that Hitchens even landed some punches.
 * Oona King in "Ringside at Galloway vs Hitchens" The Guardian (16 September 2005)


 * Galloway should recognise his error in arguing that every sovereign government must be free "to make its own mistakes". No. Not when those mistakes include genocide. Absolutely not.
 * Oona King in "Ringside at Galloway vs Hitchens" The Guardian (16 September 2005)


 * Throughout last week the High Court [during Galloway's libel suit against The Telegraph] witnessed George Galloway's soul laid bare: the pungent rhetoric, the radical politics forged in a Celtic furnace, the defensive posture of a particularly spiky porcupine. There are some dimensions of the MP for Glasgow, Kelvin which are predictable in an iconoclast of the old left; but others which are uniquely his own.
 * David Smith, "Just Gorgeous" The Guardian (21 November 2004)


 * Galloway has many of the ingredients that might have taken him to the top: brains, good looks, courage, a compelling style. What he lacks is fatal: judgment.
 * Michael White, "George's achilles heel", The Guardian (26 May 2006)

2010s

 * And indeed in Bradford some of his appeal to the voters was couched in sectional and religious language unprecedented in the past 60 years of British politics. One of his leaflets began thus: "God KNOWS who is a Muslim. And he KNOWS who is not. Instinctively, so do you. Let me point out to all the Muslim brothers and sisters what I stand for."... I should just add that almost no Galloway event or pronouncement is now complete without several invocations of "Allah" in one form or another.
 * David Aaronovitch "So why did he choose to stand in Bradford?" The Times (31 March 2012).
 * Following the 2012 Bradford West by-election held on 29 March 2012 in which Galloway (the Respect candidate) was elected.


 * No doubt George and I will come across each other somewhere . . . I thought the tactics he used against our candidate [Naz Shah, the Labour candidate who regained Bradford West the previous May] were appalling. I was quite shocked; it was appalling.
 * Jeremy Corbyn quoted in Jason Cowley "Jeremy Corbyn: 'I think we have to think in terms of the disillusioned who didn't vote'" New Statesman (29 July 2015).


 * [A] well-known former parliamentarian from the main centre-left party has used a charismatic radical left populism to mobilise alienated voters at the sharp end of austerity against a political elite that has failed to deliver for them for decades.
 * [T]he metropolitan media so loathe Galloway that – with the exception of the Guardian – they failed even to report the growing tide of support for Respect during the campaign and have been largely unable to make sense of it since, dismissing the result as a one-off based on Galloway's larger than life personality and ability to "play the Muslim card".
 * Seumas Milne "George Galloway and Jean-Luc Mélenchon expose a huge political gap", The Guardian (3 April 2012)


 * George Galloway and Steve Bannon were speaking on the same panel in Almaty. This photo appears to suggest warmth and fellow feeling between the two men. If so, it is one of the most disturbing images of our troubled times.
 * George Monbiot tweet cited by Alexander Reid Ross "Fascism and the Far Left: A Grim Global Love Affair" Haaretz (27 May 2019).
 * Bannon and Galloway were depicted in a hug in Kazakhstan in a photograph taken by Natalia Antelava which she used in a tweet. Galloway had told Bannon British prime minister Theresa May had just resigned.


 * Today's not the day I'm going to be polite to anti-Semite scum – to be explicit George Galloway.
 * Rachel Riley tweet cited in "Rachel Riley in four-letter blast at George Galloway over Labour anti-Semitism row", Evening Standard (9 January 2019).
 * Responding to criticism from Galloway "Dumbfounding. She calls Chomsky (or Chomski as she styles him) an anti-Semite and slanders half the Labour Party as the same."


 * I've always admired George's anti-imperialist stances and I don't regret, for a second, standing side by side on those issues. But for me, to have to make a choice between that and standing up for the rights of women was a false choice. I thought it was a blurring of something that didn't need to be blurred. It's not that complicated – you can hold two ideas at the same time.
 * Salma Yaqoob, as cited in Aida Edemariam "Respect's Salma Yaqoob: 'Why I quit'", The Guardian (22 September 2012)
 * Yaqoob resigned from the party, and from her post as leader, following Galloway's comments about Julian Assange and the accusations made against him by two women.

2020s

 * The blame for the poisonous campaign should be laid at the feet of George Galloway. It is very good news the veteran rabble rouser lost his seventh contest in a row ...
 * Ian Austin "Starmer's weakness gave Galloway the space to spread toxicity", The Telegraph (2 July 2021).
 * Published following the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election held on 1 July. Galloway was a candidate for the Workers Party of Britain.


 * Galloway says he abhors antisemitism, which makes it rotten luck that one of his aides was exposed as a Holocaust denier. Hard to imagine what might have drawn such a person to an avowed anti-racist, but there we are. When the Galloway travelling circus comes to town, it always brings the same trouble, pitting communities against each other, stirring up fear and loathing.
 * Jonathan Freedland in "Starmer has a little breathing space after Batley and Spen. He must use it wisely" The Guardian (2 July 2021).
 * Galloway dismissed the aide after he was exposed as a Holocaust denier. In Jewish News (27 June 2021), he was quoted as "absolutely" condemning antisemitism and Holocaust denial and "cannot be held responsible for the social media opinions of some 200 people helping his campaign".


 * [Galloway] has fought even more seats than he's had wives.
 * Marina Hyde "Conspiracists, chancers and a sexter – Rochdale deserves better, and frankly we all do", The Guardian (13 February 2024).


 * Galloway filed a High Court action in Dublin against Twitter in May for defamation as the social media platform labelled his account "Russian state-affiliated media." He denies the label as he no longer presents his show on any Russian-linked channel. He said the "unjust” link by Twitter is "a daily stab to the heart of who I am and what I am."
 * Maeve McTaggart "George Galloway says Clare Daly is 'Joan of Arc' reborn over Ukraine war stance" Sunday World (Dublin, 11 October 2022).


 * There is nobody in the current parliament who can speak as well as Galloway. He will make a number of flamboyant interventions which will transfix the media and be most unpleasant for the Labour leader. The BBC will give him a regular platform. The Palestinian cause will have a leader with real profile and one many British Jews loathe.
 * Andrew Marr "George Galloway's return isn't a nightmare for Labour", The New Statesman (1 March 2024).
 * Galloway won the 2024 Rochdale by-election held on 29 February as a candidate for the Workers Party of Britain.


 * And it's beyond alarming that last night, the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP.
 * Rishi Sunak speaking outside 10 Downing Street (1 March 2024), as cited in "Rishi Sunak says George Galloway's by-election victory 'beyond alarming' and warns democracy 'under threat'", The Standard (1 March 2024).