Workers Party of Great Britain leader George Galloway has been defeated in Rochdale.

Galloway, who was attempting to hold his Greater Manchester constituency, was defeated by Labour’s Paul Waugh, the former political journalist for the i newspaper and Huffington Post.

Waugh topped the poll with 13,047 votes, Galloway came a close second with 11,508.

The controversial broadcaster did not turn up at to the count in Rochdale.

Galloway retweeted a claim that said the election "has been rigged against George Galloway from the start".
He won in the Rochdale by-election earlier this year. At the time, he declared “Keir Starmer – this is for Gaza” when he won. An estimated 30 per cent of voters in Rochdale are Muslim and the former Big Brother contestant had been attempting tap into the apparent hostility among some Muslim voters to Labour’s position on the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking on the BBC, former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock called Galloway “repulsive” and a “chancer”.

The Jewish Labour Movement Chair told the JC: "This is a tremendous result. Galloway is a one-trick pony, a pedlar of vicious hate who never sticks around after winning a by-election to serve the people who elected him. Politics is so much better off without him as an elected representative."