Veteran left-wing political maverick George Galloway was elected as the new lawmaker for the English town of Rochdale on Friday, vowing to be a thorn in the side for the opposition Labour Party over Gaza before a national election it is tipped to win. After running a pro-Palestinian campaign, Galloway won over many of Rochdale’s Muslim community by attacking both Labour and Britain’s governing Conservatives for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas, making a foreign conflict the major issue, unusual in a by-election where local concerns usually dominate.
