Galloway expelled from Labour Party
Rebel MP George Galloway has been expelled from the Labour Party.
The government has been keen to stress that Mr Galloway has not been expelled from the party because of his anti-war stance.
He faced five charges relating to a television interview during the war in which he accused Mr Blair and George Bush of acting “like wolves” over the Iraq war.
The charges included encouraging voters to back non-Labour MPs, urging Arab nations to fight against the coalition and calling on British troops to disobey orders.
Mr Galloway was judged to have broken a rule which bans “bringing the Labour Party into disrepute by behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party”.
The Glasgow Kelvin MP was a vociferous critic of the war in Iraq. He had visited the country on numerous occasions and met with Iraqi leaders, including Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz.
Mr Galloway had earlier threatened to resign his seat and force a by-election in his constituency, where he would stand as an independent candidate. He revealed that he would certainly stand as an independent candidate at the next general election.
He was suspended from the Labour Party earlier this year, pending an investigation, which was completed today.
In addition, Mr Galloway was accused of having taken payments from the Saddam Hussein regime, after a Daily Telegraph journalist claimed to have found documents detailing the payments in a damaged government building in Baghdad.
Although Mr Galloway was sympathetic to the Saddam regime, he denies receiving any payments, and is suing the newspaper for libel.
Mr Galloway received testimonies of support at the disciplinary hearing from a number of influential political figures, including Michael Foot and Tony Benn.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, a defiant Mr Galloway called the disciplinary hearing “a kangaroo court” and said that he and other anti-war MPs “would not go away”.
He claimed that the decision to expel him would “damage the Labour Party all over the country” and described Tony Blair as a “lying deceiving Prime Minister”, threatening to “hold him to account”.
There is no right of appeal against the ruling, although it can be challenged in the courts. Mr Galloway told reporters that he was now considering contesting his expulsion.
