Yesterday Labour sources laughed off reports of bookies refusing to take bets on Galloway, today they are looking at the most sensational by-election victory in a generation. George Galloway won a 10,140 majority with a 36.59% swing from Labour to Respect.

Galloway was as modest as ever

“By the grace of God, we have won the most sensational victory in British political history … Labour has been hit by a tidal wave in a seat they have held for many decades and dominated for 100 years. I have won a big victory in every part of the constituency, including in areas many people said I should not even compete.”

Galloway shamelessly appealed to Asian youth with a radical anti-imperialist stance, attacking Labour over Iraq and Afghanistan. It will give many a pause for thought, Ken Livingstone in London is running a similar electoral strategy, courting Muslim voters over Gaza and promising  at the Finsbury Park Mosque to make London a beacon for Islam. Labour’s traditional Jewish voters are deserting Livingstone who has cynically calculated that Muslim voters out number Jewish voters 4 to 1 in London. Most Londoners will not want to see the Bradford Spring translated into Ken running a an anti-imperialist London twinned with Gaza…