On the day after the Labour Party renounced its candidate in the forthcoming Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, and warned activists they would face “disciplinary action” if they campaigned for him, its headquarters in the town, shown above, presented a picture of desolation, the entrance barred with a heavy metal shutter.
In Rochdale there is deep anger with Labour, and not all of it is about Gaza, the issue which led to the sacking of Ali.
Billy Howarth, who is standing as an Independent in the by-election, said in a fury that other issues much closer to home were being ignored because of the concentration on Gaza: “This isn’t a Rochdale by-election. It’s a Palestine by-election.”
He said he usually votes Conservative, and the Conservative candidate in this election, Paul Ellison, is “not a bad lad”.
But Howarth is a leading figure in Parents Against Grooming UK, founded in 2012 in the wake of the Rochdale grooming scandal to give support to survivors of abuse, of whom he himself is one, and this is the cause that matters most to him.
“Not one person in authority has been held to account for epic failures involving the abuse of children,” he said, and recalled meeting Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Rochdale, whose recent death precipitated the by-election, and who served from 2012-17 as Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner.
When Howarth talked to Lloyd about Knowl View, one of the many sexual abuse scandals in Rochdale, Lloyd replied, “that’s in the past”, which in Howarth’s view was “unacceptable”.
Howarth went on to list others in authority who in his opinion have let the town down: Richard Farnell (a former Labour council leader in Rochdale, who died in 2021), Gordon Brown (whom Howarth blames for attributing grotesque acts of abuse to the victims’ chaotic lifestyles), Sir Peter Fahy (former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester), Jacqui Smith (former Home Secretary) and Sir Keir Starmer (former Director of Public Prosecutions).
Howarth has some heroes too, including Maggie Oliver, a police whistle-blower, and Nazir Afzal, formerly the Chief Crown Prosecutor for North-West England. He also volunteered that Suella Braverman, as Home Secretary, “said everything I wanted to hear, but then they shipped her out [sacked her] two days later”.
In his belief there is “a dark cloud of injustice hanging over Rochdale”, with many perpetrators of abuse still free to walk the streets.
It is unlikely Howarth will garner many votes in the by-election: apart from anything else, there is another Independent candidate also called Howarth.
And many voters in Rochdale yesterday expressed total disillusion with politics, and declared they will not vote for anyone.
Enter George Galloway, intent on mobilising the 30 per cent Muslim vote in Rochdale, insisting he is the true socialist candidate, and also setting out to win over anyone of a mischievous disposition. Galloway, once a Labour MP, is a formidable campaigner, who won against Labour in Bethnal Green & Bow in 2005, and in Bradford West in 2012.
Galloway was recognised by Frank Johnson, the greatest sketch writer of modern times, as “a tremendous parliamentarian”, an accolade which can be won without being scrupulous.
Labour’s withdrawal from the fight leaves Galloway in a favourable position. ConHome heard he was working out of a Suzuki garage whose proprietor had offered to lend it to him as a campaign headquarters. We had difficulty finding this garage, but on asking for directions at a car wash establishment displaying a Galloway poster, were driven to the garage in question by a Muslim who said, “This guy’s going to win, Inshallah. When he’s talking he’s telling the truth.”
James Giles, Leader of the Opposition on Kingston Council, is helping to run Galloway’s campaign, a role he also played in the Batley & Spen byelection in 2021, when Galloway was defeated.
“Galloway isn’t perfect,” Giles admitted, “no candidate is, but Galloway has for much longer than I’ve been alive been a voice for the voiceless.”
He denied that Galloway was just fighting on Palestine, and pointed to references in Galloway’s leaflets to potholes, grooming gangs and other local issues.
Giles observed that most people in Rochdale don’t yet know there’s going to be a by-election on 29th February. He claimed the race is now between Galloway and Simon Danczuk, once the Labour MP for Rochdale and now the Reform candidate.
Enter Galloway himself, who said: “Labour’s imploding over the Israel story. It’s clear that Starmer is out of his depth. In fact he lacks both depth and dexterity. He makes every problem worse.
“If I was advising him I’d say, ‘You are causing unbearable stress and strain in the party’s support base, and these explosions, or implosions, are a direct result of that.'”
When it was put to Galloway that he was deepening the divisions in Rochdale, he replied in a defiant tone: “An election is divisive. Otherwise why have them? Why not just have a consensus?”
He insisted he too wants justice in the grooming affair: “Labour covered it up. I’m the antidote to Labour.”
And he volunteered that he will be 70 this year, his youngest child is only three years old, and he had committed himself to spending this time with his wife and their children overseas.
Such a high proportion of people in Rochdale have not yet decided who, if anyone, to back in the by-election on 29th February, that the result remains unpredictable. But there can be little doubt that Galloway is now best placed to benefit from the disaster that has overtaken the Labour campaign.