Rishi Sunak announcement: PM says he is 'beyond alarmed' by George Galloway winning Rochdale by-election

Rishi Sunak has said the election of firebrand politician George Galloway in Rochdale is "beyond alarming".

The Prime Minister gave an impromptu announcement in Downing Street tonight (1 March) after last night's by-election. Sunak said: "In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality.

“What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence. Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.

"Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Long-standing parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns."

And on Galloway he said: "And it’s beyond alarming that last night, the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate that dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP."

After his victory in the early hours of this morning, Galloway said "this is for Gaza" and appeared to threaten Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer saying "you will pay a high price". He told Sky News that Israel had "no right to exist" adding that he would "love to crush the Labour Party".

After Sunak's speech, the 69-year-old, who has now represented four constituencies in two nations, said he did not understand Sunak’s suggestion that he “glorifies Hezbollah” but hoped they could discuss it on Wednesday if the Prime Minister “has the guts”.

Galloway was an MP in Glasgow from 1987 to 2005, representing Labour until 2003 when he was kicked out of the party for telling soldiers in Iraq to disobey orders. He became the independent MP in Bethnal Green and Bow, east London from 2005 to 2010 before losing to Rushanara Ali, and was also MP in Bradford West from 2012 to 2015.

Galloway fought a dirty campaign against his Labour rival Naz Shah, now the MP for Bradford West, claiming she was 16 instead of 15 when she was forced into marriage. He said this mattered because it played into Pakistani stereotypes.

Galloway met Saddam Hussein and described him as "your excellency", and said the collapse of the Soviet Union was the "biggest catastrophe of my life". He's also praised the leader of Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and Syria's murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad. In his speech, Sunak continued to say that since Hamas' attack on Israel “there are forces here at home trying to tear us apart". "Since 7 October, there have been those trying to take advantage of the very human angst that we all feel about the terrible suffering that war brings to the innocent, to women and children, to advance a divisive, hateful ideological agenda", he said.

“On too many occasions recently, our streets have been hijacked by small groups who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions.

“Membership of our society is contingent on some simple things that you will abide by the rule of law. And that change can only come through the peaceful democratic process. Threats of violence and intimidation are alien to our way of doing things. They must be resisted at all times.

“Nearly everyone in Britain supports these basic values. But there are small and vocal hostile groups who do not. Islamist extremists, and the far right feed off and embolden each other. They are equally desperate to pretend that their violence is somehow justified, when actually these groups are two sides of the same extremist coin.”

Earlier in the week, Sunak had said that there "is a growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule". Today, he told protesters: "Don’t let the extremists hijack your marches. You have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently, peacefully and with empathy for your fellow citizens.

"Let’s prove these extremists wrong and show that even when we disagree we will never be disunited from our common values of decency and respect."

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.