British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday that George Galloway’s victory in a by-election in Rochdale was “divisive” while Labour leader vowed to win the seat back through a “first-class candidate”.
Several Jewish groups also expressed concern over Galloway’s win.
Galloway won the vote in the northern English town by 12,335 votes after running on a pro-Palestine campaign, defeating independent candidate David Tully.
Labour had withdrawn its support for its candidate over his anti-Israel comments.
“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Galloway said after his win.
The Labour leader had initially refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza where Israel has killed more than 30,000 people since October.
Labour has since changed its position and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
“You have paid and you will pay a high price for the role you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in … in the Gaza Strip,” Galloway.
Starmer claimed Galloway only won the Rochdale by-election “because Labour didn’t stand a candidate”, the BBC reported.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews called for UK MPs to shun Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Britain, as a “pariah”.
Galloway’s parliamentary win is his first in nine years, calling it Starmer’s “worst nightmare”.
He told the BBC his party has 60 candidates ready to stand in an upcoming general election, and that his victory “could be the beginning of something new, something big”.
The by-election in Rochdale was triggered by the death last month of Labour MP Tony Lloyd.
