Tuesday, May 07, 2024

UK
George Galloway HANGS UP in feisty LBC interview after being challenged over gay relationship comments

The Rochdale MP claimed he had been 'ambushed'


By Chris Slater
Senior Reporter
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS
 5 MAY 2024
George Galloway accused the station of playing an 'edited clip' of his comments which have sparked controversy (Image: Getty Images)

George Galloway angrily cut off a live radio interview after being challenged over comments he made about gay relationships.

The Rochdale MP and leader of the Workers Party of Britain hung up after being asked by the LBC's Lewis Goodall about the remarks he made in the interview with Novara Media, in which in which he suggested he did not think gay relationships were equal to heterosexual ones.

When the remarks were played by Mr Goodall on his Sunday show in the station, and put to him afterwards, Mr Galloway said: “This is a clip of a clip. It is an edited clip of an edited clip", a point which Mr Goodall denied.

However, Mr Galloway suggested a wider point he had made about gender identity had been lost. He also claimed that Mr Goodall had 'got this interview to talk about the election' and that the radio station was “ambushing” him, adding: “I have got a simple answer. Listen to the whole thing tonight.”

Mr Galloway then stated he was going to hang up the phone, saying: “More fool me thinking that your request that I come on and talk about the elections was genuine.”



Mr Galloway ended the interview with LBC's Lewis Goodall (Image: LBC)

In a clip from the interview with Novara Media, Mr Galloway said: “I don’t want my children prematurely sexualised at all, I don’t want them taught that some things are normal when their parents don’t believe that they’re normal.

“Now there’s lots of things not normal, doesn’t mean you have to hate something that isn’t normal. But if my children are taught that there’s – whatever the current vogue number is – 76 or 97 or whatever the number of purported genders that exist, I don’t want my children taught that.”

Mr Galloway became the MP for Rochdale in February, gaining almost 40 percent of the vote in a contest mired in chaos and controversy and dominated by the Gaza conflict.

George Galloway MP with Shabaz Sarwar who unseated Manchester City Council's Deputy Leader Luthfur Rahman at Thursday's local elections (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)

Mr Galloway said he did not want children to be taught “that gay relationships are exactly the same and as normal as a mum, a dad and kids”.

He added: “I want my children to be taught that the normal thing in Britain, in society across the world, is a mother, a father and a family.

“I want them to be taught that there are gay people in the world and that they must be treated with respect and affection, as I treat my own gay friends and colleagues with respect and affection but I don’t want my children to be taught that these things are equal because I don’t believe them to be equal.”

Mr Galloway has previously represented seats in Glasgow, east London and Bradford in the Commons, for Labour and later the Respect Party.

He has said he hopes to act as a challenger to Labour at the general election, and has claimed his party will field candidates to stand against the opposition’s key figures.

They caused an upset at the Manchester City Council local elections, where the council's Deputy Leader Luthfur Rahman was ousted from his seat in Longsight by the Workers Party's Shahbaz Sarwar in a contest said to have been dominated by the war in Gaza and Labour's position on the conflict.

They also won two seats from Labour in Rochdale. Speaking afterwards, he said: "We have two new councillors in two target wards, both by thumping victories," he said.

Adding: "You could say I'm a happy man, I'm as happy as inside Keir Starmer is unhappy because he's lost a very key part of the demographic make-up."

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