The Guardian followed him for few hours last week as he toured the Bradford University campus and it was like being in the retinue of a Hollywood star. Every step he took, someone called out his first name and went in for a hug or asked to have their photo taken. The Guardian's photographer, a veteran of 25 years of covering byelections, said he had never seen anything like it.
The majority of those pledging their support had a number of things in common. They were either a first time voter or a disaffected Labourite, and all wanted to congratulate him on his robust stance against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many said they used to watch him on Press TV, the English-language Iranian controlled channel – until it was taken off air by the government earlier this year.
More still had watched YouTube clips of Galloway ripping into his detractors, whether in front of the US senate in 2005 or in a classically adversarial interview with Sky News about Gaza. These, Galloway proudly refers to as his "greatest hits". Only a handful recognised him primarily from his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, when he dressed in a red unitard and pretended to be Rula Lenska's pussycat.
A common theme was frustration at clan politics in Bradford, known by the Urdu word Bradree, meaning relation or family, which here has become a byword for exclusivity. Many felt that too many important decisions were taken in Bradford by a small number of Pakistanis who came from Mirpur, a small town in Kashmir, and who had carved up the most important Labour party positions between them over the years.
The Labour candidate in the byelection seemed to many to fit exactly into that mould. Imran Hussain, a 34-year-old barrister from Bradford with Mirpur heritage, was following in his father's footsteps when he became involved in the local Labour party, rising two years ago to become deputy leader of the city council.
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Furqan Naeem, senior Labour Student member and the chair of University of Bradford Student Union Council, said at the count: "George has captured the hearts and minds of the young students – especially people from Asian backgrounds who were previously not political. They have become the driving force of his campaign."
"He has visited the campus a number of times. The reason is that he resonates with young people on certain issues. They don't understand what's going on but they see George as a figure who voted against the Iraq war and he is big on Palestine, which a lot of Asian people care about. They see a man of principle there – although personally I think he has been very opportunistic. It's not that he doesn't have a right to come here, but he has never done anything for Bradford before – he just sensed an opportunity to win a seat."
