Ken gives surprise hope to Galloway's Assembly bid

25 April 2008

Livingstone on his lunchtime walkabout in Brick Lane

GEORGE Galloway’s election bid for the London Assembly received an unexpected boost this week... from Mayor Ken Livingstone.

The London mayor said Respect’s Galloway would compare well to some of the “nonentities” currently sitting on the London Assembly

Even Labour’s London Assembly member John Biggs, a sworn enemy of the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, called voters to back Galloway instead of Tories.

He said: “I’d much rather people vote for George Galloway than the Tories. I didn’t think I’d ever say that.”

Livingstone spoke to the Advertiser during a trip to Brick Lane's famous Jamme Masjit mosque for last Friday’s lunchtime prayers.

Livingstone, in response to a question about what Galloway, who has called on his own supporters to vote for Ken in Thursday's elections, could expect in return, said: “I would like to think that we could work together and that he’d form part of a broad coalition with the Greens and us against the Tories and Islamophobes.

“George and I have had our differences in the past, but so have I and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown yet we’ve been able to work with each other.

“George has taken a very correct line around the consequences for London if Boris Johnson is elected.

“I think we could work together to make this a better city.

“We have so many nonentities who don’t add to the Assembly’s work and who don’t turn up for meetings that I think George would be better... if he’s elected that is.”

After a rally in Whitechapel on Sunday, Livingstone wished Galloway 'good luck.'

He said: “I want George on the Assembly to keep the BNP out.”

When asked if that meant he unconditionally wanted the MP to win a seat, he said: “I said what I said.”

Left-wing stalwarts Galloway and Livingstone have a long history together. Both have been outspoken critics of Israel and both have been kicked out of the Labour party.

But while the mayor was later readmitted, Galloway formed his own Respect party insisting “Labour had left him”.