Tensions over Galloway’s newfound sway in South Manchester boil over
“People are flocking to it”
Dear readers — after George Galloway swept to a decisive victory in Rochdale, one Labour insider told us: “Councillors are quaking in their boots because of what was unleashed last night”. Some feared that longstanding safe Labour areas with large Muslim populations might become vulnerable due to the party’s stance on Gaza. A couple of months on, and there’s evidence from Longsight, a ward where over half the population is Muslim, that bears these fears out.
Last week, tensions between Labour and the Workers Party of Britain came to a head, after a fight broke out at an Eid event in a park and local council candidates scrambled to blame each other for the violence. We’ve been presented with a whole host of theories about what happened and tried our best to get to the bottom of it. But it also feels like the attempts by different groups to shape a narrative tells us a lot about political tensions in South Manchester, where many are asking: just how much support does Galloway have?
That’s below. Before that, your briefing, which has updates on two of our recent stories – the camp in St Peter’s Square and the torso discovered in a Salford park.
Editor’s note: As ever with this end of the week edition of The Mill, this story is paywalled halfway down. Since we weren’t at the Eid event when the fight broke out, as you can imagine: this story was challenging to research — it involved sifting through claims and counterclaims, and trying to work out what it tells us about changing party allegiances and the upcoming local elections.
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Your Mill briefing
⛺️ Our weekend read looked at the camp in the porticoes on St Peter's Square, ending with one homeless member of the camp telling our reporter, “I don’t think it’ll be here forever.” Sure enough, after the majority of the people staying there were cleared out of the area by council workers and police yesterday, the area has now been fenced off. The council says that 56 people were offered temporary accommodation and 51 accepted. As of this morning, the area remains mainly fenced off, with three tents under an unfenced section of the porticoes.
💵 5,600 parents in Oldham paid the council over £200,000 in fines over school absences in 2021/22. The fines — which can be as high as £160 — were mostly due to children being taken on holidays during term-time. But some absences were also linked to poverty, with Glynn Potts, the headteacher of a local secondary, telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service that some children are taking time off to support parents “who are holding down zero-hours jobs”. Hitting poor families with fines is counterproductive — Potts described them as a “blunt tool” for dealing with absenteeism.
👮♂️ A police search for evidence that might help identify a dismembered torso found in a park in Salford (Mills passim) ended earlier this week. The torso — which police say was the “bottom part of the back, buttocks, and thigh” — was discovered by a passerby two weeks ago today. Police now believe that some children seen playing near the area on CCTV may have crucial information that could help their investigation.
Tensions over Galloway’s newfound sway in South Manchester boil over
By Mollie Simpson and Jack Dulhanty
In a car park in Longsight on a cold night last Friday, a brawl breaks out. A video shared with The Mill shows a group of men chasing each other around the Rushford Park car park, throwing punches and shouting. Onlookers scream and ask them to stop. At one point, someone is heard saying: “Yo, there’s kids here, man.” By the end of the video, the fight is pressed against some railings. A member of George Galloway’s entourage, wearing a black fedora, can be seen under the floodlights asking a woman to move back, and approaching the ensuing scuffle with open palms.
In the aftermath, WhatsApp groups lit up with debates over what could have incited the confrontation. Greater Manchester Police told The Mill that an investigation is ongoing, but at the time of going to press were unable to confirm if any arrests had been made.
Since the fight took place, we’ve been trying to piece together what really happened. We weren’t there — and as we’ve spoken to those who were, we’ve received very different versions of events. It’s incredibly hard to piece together a full picture of what happened. Clearly it was much more than a small scuffle, but the chain of events that led to the violence is opaque.
But the differing attempts to piece together a narrative also tell us something. South Manchester’s politics, for a long time safe Labour territory, have become much more febrile following Galloway’s election in Rochdale. That’s because — fairly or unfairly, given the absence of other candidates — Galloway has been quick to hail his victory as the start of a new movement in British politics. And the first plank of his strategy is clear: expand across Greater Manchester. His Workers Party of Britain (WPB) is fielding dozens of candidates at the forthcoming local elections across the city region. Could other places follow where Rochdale has led?
He’s definitely getting a hearing. After reading comments on social media groups with a focus on issues in south Manchester, it’s clear that many Muslim voters feel alienated by Labour’s stance on Gaza, an issue Galloway has made central to his campaigning. In November, the Labour Party asked MPs to abstain from voting on a Scottish National Party motion explicitly asking for a ceasefire, which put many MPs in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why they voted against a ceasefire, with some unable to defend Labour’s position. This stance changed in February, when for the first time, Starmer called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. But by then, the damage was done. On one WhatsApp group that brings together members of the Rusholme Muslim community, many express very dim views of the Labour Party.
“I have friends in Rochdale which is a big Labour area. Everyone I know is voting for the workers party there. I was at an Eid party yesterday and all said they won’t vote Labour because of the issue in schools and because of Palestine,” one says. “Don’t vote for these Muppet[s], they don’t deserve to be in this community anymore”, says another, next to a picture of local Labour candidates. One even shares a mock-up of a Labour poster, with a picture of injured Palestinian children and the slogan: “Labour: friends of bombing hospitals”.
The deep sense of betrayal by Labour that some Muslim voters feel has created real tensions within communities, between those who remain loyal to the party, and those who view such loyalty as tantamount to complicity with genocide. In the same Rusholme WhatsApp group, the WPB candidate for Longsight gets a much warmer reception: “Had these brothers at the door a few days ago... they sound very good and back the issues we have faced. They support Gaza also,” says one group member, next to a picture of a WPB leaflet.
That’s why the upcoming local elections, usually a fairly predictable affair in Manchester (if not Greater Manchester) feel much more charged. Lower turnouts at local elections mean that it’s much easier for a new group with committed supporters to make inroads. With only two weeks to go, many are wondering: could the WPB actually take some serious territory? And just how much has the Gaza issue deterred previously committed Labour voters?
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