George Galloway is no stranger to controversy. The contentious views of the British MP have sparked debate since he first entered public office.
Galloway was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1954. At 16, he quit school to work on the production lines at Michelin Tires.
He was active in the Transport and General Workers Union, and became a labour organizer in the late 70s. During that decade, he also became involved with the PLO.
As a local representative in Dundee, Galloway arranged for the city to be twinned with the Palestinian city of Nablus, and flew the Palestinian flag from the council office.
In 1983, Galloway became the general secretary for a charity called War on Want, and four years later, was elected MP for the Glasgow Hillhead constituency as a member of the Labour Party.
During a 1994 visit to Iraq, Galloway told Saddam Hussein: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." Up until 2003, he led a campaign to lift economic sanctions in Iraq, and then campaigned to prevent the American invasion.
Galloway was kicked out of the Labour Party after saying on television that Tony Blair and George Bush had acted “like wolves” by invading Iraq.
Labour chairman Ian McCartney said his comments had "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops.” Labour decided his comments had brought the party “into disrepute.”
Founds Respect Party
Galloway then founded the Respect Party in 2004, which he continues to represent. That year, he argued unsuccessfully that Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front Party, should not be allowed to enter Britain.
“Le Pen should not be allowed to set foot on to British soil at any time,” he said. “If the Home Secretary allows into this country someone who denies the Holocaust and who is on record as hating all Muslims, he will be siding with the neo-Nazi far-right against multicultural Britain.”
Galloway also supported Britain’s denial of entry to Dutch MP Geert Wilders last month. Wilders has blamed Islamic writings for the 9/11 attacks, and has compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
In 2005, he was accused by a U.S. Senate Committee of profiting from misconduct related to the UN Oil-for-Food program.
Galloway went to Capitol Hill and voluntarily testified before the committee, where he delivered a fiery attack on a panel of senators, calling them a "lickspittle Republican committee,”
He appeared on the television reality show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, where he appeared in a red leotard and pretended to be a cat before being evicted from the house.
Galloway was suspended from the British Parliament for 18 days in 2007, after a disciplinary panel investigation reported that a charity he set up was partially funded by Saddam Hussein’s government.
In March 2009, Galloway was scheduled to enter Canada during a speaking tour. He was told by the Canadian government that he would be denied entry based on the fact that he delivered humanitarian goods to Gaza, as well as $45,000 to Hamas, a banned terrorist organization.
A federal court ruled last week that the government’s branding of Galloway as a Hamas supporter was unfairly motivated by "antipathy to his political views," and showed "a flawed and overreaching interpretation of the standards under Canadian law for labelling someone as engaging in terrorism or being a member of a terrorist organization."
He was admitted to the country on Saturday, and gave a speech in Toronto the following day, where he said Canada is now seen as "no more than an embassy for (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu," and "a trumpet for the most extreme Israeli politicians.”
With files from Postmedia News
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.