Rochdale by-election: The fight for ‘the forgotten corner of England’

Published

1 year ago

February 28, 2024

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Nestled in the foothills of the Pennines, Rochdale is a town with a proud history.

It was once home to the world’s foremost cotton processing centres and is widely known as the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement.

But in recent years the town has been marred by child exploitation scandals, poverty and deprivation. According to Poverty Action’s Monitor report, 28% of children in Rochdale are still living in poverty.

“There are housing issues that we need to deal with, there are homeless issues we deal with and there are child protection issues we need to deal with”, one resident said.

The last thing this town wants is this dysfunctional by-election. But now that’s just one day away.

At the local Judo club, the committee secretary Dave feels like many others.

“It’s turning into a little bit of a pantomime.

“I don’t think there’s a credible vote amongst the main candidates which leaves me in a bit of a quandary.”

Labour has ditched its candidate, the Green candidate is still on the ballot paper but not campaigning after what he described as “regrettable” social media posts, the Conservative candidate was on holiday until a week before the by-election, and now there are in total 11 candidates in the race – many running as independents.

Once the frontrunners, Labour disowned their candidate Azhar Ali after he made alleged antisemitic remarks, revealed in a leaked recording.

Mr Ali now runs as an independent but his name will still be on the ballot paper by Labour as per electoral rules.

The rise of the independents

The bookies have their eye on the left-wing challenger George Galloway running for the Workers Party of Britain.

He is a former Labour MP turned experienced protester who has seized on by-elections before, this time seemingly trying to mobilise those disaffected with Labour over the party’s stance on Israel and Gaza.

He has condemned Azhar Ali’s comments and says some of the remarks are antisemitic. This is an allegation that has sometimes been levelled at him – something he completely denies.

I asked him whether he understood why the Jewish Labour Movement expressed a concern about the potential for his return to parliament.

“If I return to parliament, it will be because I’m elected to parliament, and if I’m elected to parliament, I’ll be saying the same things that I’ve been saying for more than 50 years on the issue of Israel and Palestine. Don’t expect me to change,” Mr Galloway said.

A Reform battle bus driving past George Galloway’s headquarters interrupts the interview halfway through.

A rival candidate at the helm bellows into a microphone: “Vote Reform UK to stop Galloway becoming an MP in the Rochdale by-election.”

That individual is another former Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, who was suspended from the party after sending explicit texts to a 17-year-old girl.

He has since left the party and is a candidate in this by-election under the banner of Reform UK.

“The choice is between me and Galloway and there is a real difference between what I would stand for, which is Rochdale, and what he would stand for, which is Gaza,” Mr Danczuk said.

On the ballot paper

The Liberal Democrats used to be a major party here but the risk for them now is the potential to get lost amongst an array of characters.

Their candidate Iain Donaldson said: “What needs to be done here is about graft, it’s about getting the services up to standard and it’s about helping people.”

Conservatives say their campaign is one of localism, though the candidate Paul Ellison was on holiday last week and said he was too busy this week for an interview with Sky News.

At a lunch club for locals, run by the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Circle, Margaret tells me she’s not surprised about the spirit of the campaign in Rochdale and the circus that it’s become.

“We’re like the forgotten corner of England, we don’t count.”

Politics

‘No doubt’ UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

Published

3 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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'No doubt' UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.

John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.

This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.

Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”

A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.

The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.

This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.

The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.

While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.

A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.

The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.

“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”

Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.

The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.

On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.

Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.

He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.

“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.

“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”