Keir Starmer must stand up to George Galloway

George Galloway has done it again. As an expert in riding waves of fury among Muslim voters about happenings in the Middle East, from the Iraq War to the Gaza conflict, Galloway has turned into a skilled tormentor of successive Labour leaders. 

The biggest short-term risk by far that Galloway’s win in Rochdale poses to Keir Starmer is that it will force an over-correction in Middle East policy from the Leader of the Opposition. Were Starmer to become detectably more anti-Israel and pro-Palestine over the coming weeks as a result of pressure from a perceived Muslim block vote, it would certainly shore up Labour’s position in a couple of dozen urban seats. But such a move would come at a grave cost to the party’s overall standing in the eyes of millions of mainstream centre-right voters who are currently sufficiently relaxed about the idea of Starmer taking over in Downing Street that they have withdrawn their support from the Conservatives.

If Starmer’s Labour becomes ‘unsafe’ in the eyes of these voters then it could well presage a mass decision among such voters to hold their noses and put their crosses in the Tory box on the ballot paper yet again.