‘Complete non-starter’: Jeremy Corbyn allies snub George Galloway’s plea for political pact with ex-Labour leader
George Galloway’s hopes of recruiting Jeremy Corbyn to his party have been dashed after sources close to the former Labour leader dismissed the idea he would join forces with the newly-elected MP for Rochdale.
Upon entering parliament last week following his controversial victory in the Rochdale by-election, Mr Galloway appealed to Mr Corbyn to “launch and lead” a new alliance of socialists and questioned why he had “procrastinated for so long” about his political future.
But sources close to Mr Corbyn – who remains suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party – have told Sky News Mr Galloway and Mr Corbyn working together was “never going to happen”.
A former aide told Sky News: “Galloway wants Jeremy to be the leader of some new great movement, but I don’t think Jeremy would do that. He doesn’t need Galloway’s baggage.”
They added: “George and Jeremy may have spoken at the same rallies during the Iraq war, but they have not ever been close comrades. George Galloway is a lone wolf – it’s how he operates.”
Another source branded the idea Mr Corbyn could join Mr Galloway’s Workers Party as a “complete non-starter”.
“They may agree over Gaza but they have totally different politics. It wouldn’t be in Jeremy’s interests.”
A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn declined to comment. Mr Galloway has been approached for comment.
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‘Keir Starmer, you’ll pay a high price’
Mr Galloway, a former Labour MP who was expelled from the party in 2003, won the Rochdale by-election last week on a pro-Gaza platform that earned him a majority of 5,697 votes.
By contrast, Labour – which had previously held the seat under the late Sir Tony Lloyd – came fourth with just 2,402 votes after the party was forced to abandon support for its candidate following an antisemitism row.
Mr Galloway has been strongly critical of Sir Keir Starmer’s position on the conflict, accusing him in his victory speech of “enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip”.
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He claimed his election was going to “spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies”.
Shortly before he was sworn in as an MP in the Commons, Mr Galloway urged Mr Corbyn to make a “final total break with Labour” in an interview with the left-leaning YouTube channel Not the Andrew Marr Show.
He admitted he had not spoken with Mr Corbyn in “many years” and said he did not know why “he has procrastinated so long in making a final total break with Labour and leading something himself.”
“If he was here now, I would say to him, ‘You saw what happened [in Rochdale]. Set up, announce an alliance of the remaining socialists in the country. You lead it, I’ll support it, you’ll be the leader, and let’s go. Time is running out.'”
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‘If you slap me I will slap you back’
He added: “He must avoid being a wasting asset. He is a very considerable asset and everyone loves him. But he should be careful that he doesn’t waste the remaining opportunity that he has.
“If he won’t, we will run ourselves – we’ll support independence where we don’t run ourselves, and we’ll do that, but we will be weaker because of the absence of Jeremy Corbyn at the head of it.”
Mr Corbyn sits as an independent MP in the Commons after he was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party over his reaction to a damning report into how antisemitism complaints were handled under his leadership.
Sir Keir has been adamant there is no route back for Mr Corbyn into the parliamentary party and that he will not be able to stand for Labour at the next election – increasing the likelihood he will stand as an independent in his constituency of Islington North, a seat he has held since 1983.
One Labour MP said they believed Mr Galloway had “ulterior motives” in asking Mr Corbyn to join his party – something they said the latter would be “stupid to do”.
“He’s set Corbyn a challenge he know he won’t be able to step up to,” they explained.
“He’s trying to make Jeremy an offer he can’t refuse and if he doesn’t take up that offer, I think Galloway will make out that Corbyn is the problem. Galloway wants to be the big boy of the left, he wants Jeremy’s 2.5m followers on social media.
“He wants to be the kingmaker of the left – but Galloway is for Galloway and nothing else.”
Thousands more Afghan nationals may have been affected by another data breach, the government has said.
Up to 3,700 Afghans brought to the UK between January and March 2024 have potentially been impacted as names, passport details and information from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has been compromised again, this time by a breach on a third party supplier used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
This was not an attack directly on the government but a cyber security incident on a sub-contractor named Inflite – The Jet Centre – an MoD supplier that provides ground handling services for flights at London Stansted Airport.
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July: UK spies exposed in Afghan data breach
The flights were used to bring Afghans to the UK, travel to routine military exercises, and official engagements. It was also used to fly British troops and government officials.
Those involved were informed of it on Friday afternoon by the MoD, marking the second time information about Afghan nationals relocated to the UK has been compromised.
It is understood former Tory ministers are also affected by the hack.
Earlier this year, it emerged that almost 7,000 Afghan nationals would have to be relocated to the UK following a massive data breach by the British military that successive governments tried to keep secret with a super-injunction.
Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” for the first data breach in a statement to the House of Commons, saying he was “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach, adding: “No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner.”
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July: Afghan interpreter ‘betrayed’ by UK govt
The previous Conservative government set up a secret scheme in 2023 to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the data breach, but who were not eligible for an existing programme to relocate and help people who had worked for the British government in Afghanistan.
The mistake exposed personal details of close to 20,000 individuals, endangering them and their families, with as many as 100,000 people impacted in total.
Read more on Sky News:
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Afghan data leak timeline
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A government spokesperson said of Friday’s latest breach: “We were recently notified that a third party sub-contractor to a supplier experienced a cyber security incident involving unauthorised access to a small number of its emails that contained basic personal information.
“We take data security extremely seriously and are going above and beyond our legal duties in informing all potentially affected individuals. The incident has not posed any threat to individuals’ safety, nor compromised any government systems.”
In a statement, Inflite – The Jet Centre confirmed the “data security incident” involving “unauthorised access to a limited number of company emails”.
“We have reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office and have been actively working with the relevant UK cyber authorities, including the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, to support our investigation and response,” it said.
“We believe the scope of the incident was limited to email accounts only, however, as a precautionary measure, we have contacted our key stakeholders whose data may have been affected during the period of January to March 2024.”
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