The shockwaves of Labour’s loss to ‘Gaza’ Galloway will follow Starmer to No 10

George Galloway’s victory in Rochdale will not mark the ‘shifting of the tectonic plates’ he predicted, writes Andrew Grice – but Keir Starmer in power must be very wary of challenges from the left

The Rochdale contest will be remembered as a messy one-off that didn’t halt Starmer’s march to power (Getty Images)

George Galloway’s victory in the Rochdale by-election will worry Labour MPs whose constituencies have large Muslim populations.

There are 19 seats in England where the number of Muslim voters is more than double Labour’s majority – including Ilford North, where Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, had a 5,218 majority at the last election, and faces a challenge from a pro-Palestinian activist.

Might Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain now become a left-wing version of Reform UK, which poses a threat to the Conservatives on their right flank, and deny Labour victory in some marginal seats? Nigel Farage, with seven parliamentary defeats to his name, shows that you don’t need to win seats to make an impact.