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| Bradford West byelection: George Galloway shakes up Labour relations | Bradford West byelection: George Galloway shakes up Labour relations |
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| "Check this out," said Mohammed Ali, delving into his jeans pocket. The Bradford taxi driver, 34, fished out his wallet and opened it up to reveal a Labour party membership card. "I'm terminating my direct debit and voting for George. I'm hardcore, me." | "Check this out," said Mohammed Ali, delving into his jeans pocket. The Bradford taxi driver, 34, fished out his wallet and opened it up to reveal a Labour party membership card. "I'm terminating my direct debit and voting for George. I'm hardcore, me." |
| If the scenes on Bradford University campus last week were anything to go by, Labour should be a little bit worried about the byelection in Bradford West on Thursday. Their man is going up against a candidate viewed as a superstar by many of the Muslims who make up 38% of the constituency: George Galloway, a master orator and political prizefighter who has become one of the most divisive figures in British politics since his expulsion from the Labour party in 2003. No wonder Labour has sent up the big guns to shore up support: Ed Miliband visited on the weekend, following heavyweights such as Dennis Skinner, Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls. | If the scenes on Bradford University campus last week were anything to go by, Labour should be a little bit worried about the byelection in Bradford West on Thursday. Their man is going up against a candidate viewed as a superstar by many of the Muslims who make up 38% of the constituency: George Galloway, a master orator and political prizefighter who has become one of the most divisive figures in British politics since his expulsion from the Labour party in 2003. No wonder Labour has sent up the big guns to shore up support: Ed Miliband visited on the weekend, following heavyweights such as Dennis Skinner, Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls. |
| To New Labour, Galloway is the bogeyman. But to young Asians such as Yasser Hussein, a Bradford student who had been a fan since watching a YouTube clip of Galloway savaging the US senate in 2005 over the Iraq war, he is simply a "legend" and "the only politician who tells the truth". In the student union, one woman squeals when she has her picture taken with him. Cherifa Baazis, the university's Muslim faith adviser, tells him he appeared to her in a dream: an omen. Yes, she said, he had her vote. | To New Labour, Galloway is the bogeyman. But to young Asians such as Yasser Hussein, a Bradford student who had been a fan since watching a YouTube clip of Galloway savaging the US senate in 2005 over the Iraq war, he is simply a "legend" and "the only politician who tells the truth". In the student union, one woman squeals when she has her picture taken with him. Cherifa Baazis, the university's Muslim faith adviser, tells him he appeared to her in a dream: an omen. Yes, she said, he had her vote. |
| Labour may have held Bradford West since 1974 – with the well-liked incumbent, Marsha Singh, even managing to increase his majority to 5,763 at the 2010 election – but with Singh standing down due to ill health and Bradford in the doldrums with mass unemployment, poor schools and a city centre marred by a big black hole where a shopping centre was meant to be built, Galloway has sniffed an opportunity to return to parliament. | Labour may have held Bradford West since 1974 – with the well-liked incumbent, Marsha Singh, even managing to increase his majority to 5,763 at the 2010 election – but with Singh standing down due to ill health and Bradford in the doldrums with mass unemployment, poor schools and a city centre marred by a big black hole where a shopping centre was meant to be built, Galloway has sniffed an opportunity to return to parliament. |
| Since relinquishing his Bethnal Green and Bow seat and failing to win another east London constituency in 2010, Galloway has been searching for a way back into mainstream politics with his anti-war Respect party. Having failed last year to persuade Glaswegians to make him an MSP, could it be third time lucky for Gorgeous George? The bookies reckon he will finish second – it's 10/1 against him winning the seat – but Galloway said he would bet his house on doing at least that well – he insists he is "in it to win it". | Since relinquishing his Bethnal Green and Bow seat and failing to win another east London constituency in 2010, Galloway has been searching for a way back into mainstream politics with his anti-war Respect party. Having failed last year to persuade Glaswegians to make him an MSP, could it be third time lucky for Gorgeous George? The bookies reckon he will finish second – it's 10/1 against him winning the seat – but Galloway said he would bet his house on doing at least that well – he insists he is "in it to win it". |
| Walking around Bradford last week, it was clear many of those planning to vote for Galloway were jumping ship from Labour. No wonder the Conservative candidate – a local businesswoman, Jackie Whiteley – told the Guardian she was happy Galloway was in the race. She hopes he will take Labour votes. He's already nabbed their staff. One of Galloway's campaign managers, Naweed Hussain, switched sides 10 days ago, despite having done the same job for Singh over three general elections. He was fed up, he said, with Labour "bypassing democracy" in the seat it has held since 1974. | Walking around Bradford last week, it was clear many of those planning to vote for Galloway were jumping ship from Labour. No wonder the Conservative candidate – a local businesswoman, Jackie Whiteley – told the Guardian she was happy Galloway was in the race. She hopes he will take Labour votes. He's already nabbed their staff. One of Galloway's campaign managers, Naweed Hussain, switched sides 10 days ago, despite having done the same job for Singh over three general elections. He was fed up, he said, with Labour "bypassing democracy" in the seat it has held since 1974. |
| Singh is Sikh, having won over all colours and creeds in the multicultural constituency. But to succeed in the Bradford Labour party these days, said Hussein, you needed roots tracing back to Mirpur, a poor area of Kashmir, where around 70% of Bradford Pakistanis hail from. "Bradree" is a word you hear whispered a lot in Bradford at the moment. Loosely meaning "family", this Urdu word denotes a hierarchical system of clan politics where leaders are chosen on their connections, rather than their talents. | Singh is Sikh, having won over all colours and creeds in the multicultural constituency. But to succeed in the Bradford Labour party these days, said Hussein, you needed roots tracing back to Mirpur, a poor area of Kashmir, where around 70% of Bradford Pakistanis hail from. "Bradree" is a word you hear whispered a lot in Bradford at the moment. Loosely meaning "family", this Urdu word denotes a hierarchical system of clan politics where leaders are chosen on their connections, rather than their talents. |
| As Galloway sees it, Bradree has resulted in "second- and third-rate politicians particularly but not exclusively from the Labour party being elected to the city council on the basis not of ability, not of ideas, not on records of experience but on whether their father came from the same village as someone else's father 50 or 60 years ago". He gained a big cheer at one hustings when he said Bradree "has led to a situation where this city is slowly sinking and where mediocrities are running around the corridors of power and scratching each others backs and feeding each other doughnuts". | As Galloway sees it, Bradree has resulted in "second- and third-rate politicians particularly but not exclusively from the Labour party being elected to the city council on the basis not of ability, not of ideas, not on records of experience but on whether their father came from the same village as someone else's father 50 or 60 years ago". He gained a big cheer at one hustings when he said Bradree "has led to a situation where this city is slowly sinking and where mediocrities are running around the corridors of power and scratching each others backs and feeding each other doughnuts". |
| The new Labour candidate, criminal defence barrister Imran Hussain, 34, was born in the city to a family from Mirpur and viewed as a shoo-in for the Labour candidacy after serving as deputy council leader. Out canvassing in the Allerton ward, Hussein dismissed all talk of Bradreeism. "The concept that this election is stitched up is not true," he said. "My values are based around equality, justice and fairness, not where I am from." | |
| He rejected claims made on the doorstep by one young constituent, 23-year-old Mahmoona Begum, who said she was voting Respect because "Labour in Bradford look after their own. I want someone who can sort out this city's schools – we're 145th out of 155 in the league tables – rather than someone who will spend his time sorting out restaurant and taxi licences for his friends." | He rejected claims made on the doorstep by one young constituent, 23-year-old Mahmoona Begum, who said she was voting Respect because "Labour in Bradford look after their own. I want someone who can sort out this city's schools – we're 145th out of 155 in the league tables – rather than someone who will spend his time sorting out restaurant and taxi licences for his friends." |
| Hussein also insisted he would not attend any public hustings alongside the other candidates because he thought knocking on doors was a better way of drumming up support – he is not scared of Galloway, he said, and his absence is not a sign of complacence. | Hussein also insisted he would not attend any public hustings alongside the other candidates because he thought knocking on doors was a better way of drumming up support – he is not scared of Galloway, he said, and his absence is not a sign of complacence. |
| Talking to voters on the doorstep, it is clear there is a large contingent of entrenched Labour supporters for whom the candidate is irrelevant. They are going to vote Labour, they always do. A retired couple, Alice and George Greenwood, tell Hussein he has their vote – even though they despair of the state Bradford is in after almost 30 years of uninterrupted Labour rule. Asked what they wanted, George said simply: "We want Bradford back." Like many locals, they wanted a few concrete things: for the Westfield shopping centre to be built in the centre so they don't have to go "all the way to Keighley for decent shops"; for the Odeon cinema to be restored. | Talking to voters on the doorstep, it is clear there is a large contingent of entrenched Labour supporters for whom the candidate is irrelevant. They are going to vote Labour, they always do. A retired couple, Alice and George Greenwood, tell Hussein he has their vote – even though they despair of the state Bradford is in after almost 30 years of uninterrupted Labour rule. Asked what they wanted, George said simply: "We want Bradford back." Like many locals, they wanted a few concrete things: for the Westfield shopping centre to be built in the centre so they don't have to go "all the way to Keighley for decent shops"; for the Odeon cinema to be restored. |
| "We need someone who understands the city, someone who has really looked under the skin of Bradford rather than taking a superficial view," said Jane Vincent, a Bradford businesswoman who was so fed up with Bradford being rubbished in the media that she set up an initiative called Positive Bradford. "Whoever becomes the next Bradford West MP needs to be a strong voice for the city – not just themselves." | "We need someone who understands the city, someone who has really looked under the skin of Bradford rather than taking a superficial view," said Jane Vincent, a Bradford businesswoman who was so fed up with Bradford being rubbished in the media that she set up an initiative called Positive Bradford. "Whoever becomes the next Bradford West MP needs to be a strong voice for the city – not just themselves." |
| Vincent doesn't name names. But the most common criticism you hear about Galloway in Bradford is that he cares far more about his own profile, than Bradford. Nonsense, he said. He isn't seeking the limelight. He doesn't court the media: the media courts him. "It's you who asked to interview me. I didn't ask you. It's your cameraman who is currently shooting me through his lens." | Vincent doesn't name names. But the most common criticism you hear about Galloway in Bradford is that he cares far more about his own profile, than Bradford. Nonsense, he said. He isn't seeking the limelight. He doesn't court the media: the media courts him. "It's you who asked to interview me. I didn't ask you. It's your cameraman who is currently shooting me through his lens." |
| He maintains that the murkier claims from his past never come up in Bradford – particularly the suggestion he was a friend of Saddam Hussein, and the Charity Commission ruling in 2007 which found that Galloway's appeal for Iraqi children found that at least £230,000 in the fund hailed from "improper donations" linked to Hussein's oil-for-food programme. Nor is he asked about his infamous feline impression on the 2006 edition of Celebrity Big Brother. "Big Brother has not come up once. Never. That's the kind of thing that preoccupies people in Guardian newsrooms, it's not what preoccupies the people of [Bradford West ward] Manningham." | He maintains that the murkier claims from his past never come up in Bradford – particularly the suggestion he was a friend of Saddam Hussein, and the Charity Commission ruling in 2007 which found that Galloway's appeal for Iraqi children found that at least £230,000 in the fund hailed from "improper donations" linked to Hussein's oil-for-food programme. Nor is he asked about his infamous feline impression on the 2006 edition of Celebrity Big Brother. "Big Brother has not come up once. Never. That's the kind of thing that preoccupies people in Guardian newsrooms, it's not what preoccupies the people of [Bradford West ward] Manningham." |
| • This article was amended on 28 March 2012 to correct a sub-head saying that George Galloway is "doing well in the polls". The article text mentioned bookmakers' odds, not opinion polls. The name of the new Labour candidate was given as Imran Hussein when it should be Hussain. |