Galloway plan to target Labour seats to 'make sure that Starmer doesn't win'

George Galloway has said he will target more seats in the next general election, including Angela Rayner's, following last week's byelection victory in Rochdale.

- Ben Quinn

Speaking outside Westminster after being sworn in as an MP, Galloway singled out the deputy Labour leader's constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, where Rayner is defending a majority of 4,263, as an example of where his Workers Party or a candidate backed by it could cause havoc.

He said: "There's at least 15,000 supporters of my point of view in her constituency. So we'll be putting a candidate up against her - either a Workers Party candidate or more likely an independent camp candidate that we support - and that will vitally affect the election of the nearby deputy leader.

"And there are many constituencies in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green in the heart of the city of London, in Birmingham, in other parts of the West Midlands in northwest England, in the towns around Rochdale, Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley, Nelson, Bury.

"We'll be putting candidates up in all these places and we will either win or we will make sure that Keir Starmer doesn't." Earlier yesterday, Galloway was sworn in and escorted into the Commons chamber by two sponsors, the Conservative MP and father of the house, Peter Bottomley, and Neale Hanvey of Scotland's Alba Party.