George Galloway returns to Parliament with ‘army in the north’ warning

GEORGE Galloway returned to the House of Commons yesterday, insisting he was “just the advance party” for “an army mustering in the north”.

The Dundee-born Bradford West MP, who overturned a 5,000 majority to storm home for the Respect party with a 10,000 majority in last month’s by-election, claimed voters were “alienated and discontented”.

Speaking at Parliament’s St Stephen’s entrance, Mr Galloway vowed to use his first week back in the Commons to raise the war in Afghanistan, likening it to Vietnam.

He said: “It is good to be back, but I’m just the advance party. There’s an army mustering in the north and in the great industrial and post-industrial cities of this country, an army of discontented, alienated people who feel that this place has let them down, it has failed the country and it has failed the people.”

Mr Galloway, accompanied by his fourth wife, anthropologist Putri Pertiwi, 27, said he would press for action in the “wake of the frankly disastrous military situation, which is becoming like Vietnam 1968”.

Mr Galloway’s Bradford West win was one of the biggest by-election shocks of modern times. He polled 18,341 votes to 8,201 for the Labour candidate.

In an interview with the Big Issue, Mr Galloway said he was the “Robin Hood” of politics.He added: “If I was a bigamist, I’d be under arrest. If I was a tax dodger, I’d be under arrest. I’m the most inquired-into individual in British politics. By a country mile.”