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.”
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A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn declined to comment. Mr Galloway has been approached for comment.
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2:34
‘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.
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”.
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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2:09
‘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.”
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.”
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Nigel Farage has reiterated that he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine – as he confirmed that he previously said he “admired” Vladimir Putin as a statesman.
Speaking to the BBC, the Reform UK leader was asked about his previous comments on Russia and Ukraine.
Asked about Russia’s 2022 invasion, Mr Farage told Nick Robinson that he had been saying since the fall of the Berlin Wall that there would be a war in Ukraine due to the “ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union”.
He said this was giving Mr Putin a reason to tell the Russian people “they’re coming for us again” and go to war.
The Reform leader confirmed his belief the West “provoked” the conflict – but said it was “of course” the Russian president’s “fault”.
Image: Mr Farage was asked about the war in Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Previous comments Mr Farage made about Mr Putin were also put to him.
He was asked about comments he made in 2014 stating that Mr Putin was the statesman he most admired.
Mr Farage said he disliked the Russian leader – but “I admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control” of running the country.
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“This is the nonsense, you know, you can pick any figure, current or historical, and say, you know, did they have good aspects?” he added.
“And if you said, ‘well, they were very talented in one area,’ then suddenly you’re the biggest supporter.”
Conservative candidates – who may be feeling the threat of a Reform surge in the polls – were quick to condemn the Reform leader.
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Home Secretary James Cleverly said Mr Farage was “echoing Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine”.
Deputy Conservative chair Jonathan Gullis added that Putin is “certainly not someone who should be admired” – adding that he “unleashed chemical warfare on the streets of our country to commit murder, which endangered further innocent British lives”.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary, John Healey, said: “These are disgraceful comments, which reveal the true face of Nigel Farage: a Putin apologist who should never be trusted with our nation’s security.
“Up until now, there has been a united front amongst Britain’s political leaders in supporting the people of Ukraine against the unprovoked and unjustifiable assault they have suffered at the hands of Vladimir Putin.
“Nigel Farage has put himself outside that united position, and shown that he would rather lick Vladimir Putin’s boots than stand up for the people of Ukraine. That makes him unfit for any political office in our country, let alone leading a serious party in parliament.”
The former UKIP leader said this is what “the Conservatives have done with it”.
“If you put me in charge it’d be very, very different,” he claimed, “but of course they didn’t do that, did they?”
On his party’s climate policies, Mr Farage said he wants to “go for nuclear energy” and scrap the existing net zero programme.
He rejected that he was “arguing the science” on climate change, but that “we spend too much time hyperventilating about the problem, rather than thinking practically and logically what we can do”.
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Mr Farage added that King Charles – who was then a prince – made a “very stupid comment” when he said carbon dioxide was a pollutant.
The Reform leader then said that, by deindustrialising, the CO2 production had been sent offshore to places like India and “all we’ve done is to export the emissions”.