He had every reason to be thrilled. While Tony Blair was facing more Iraq War revelations, Galloway, the man Labour kicked out, had a triumph. Eddie Buckle and Robert Hutton (Bloomberg News) noted that he won 56% of the vote and was re-elected despite predictions that he would lose. Anindya Bhattacharyya (Great Britian's Socialist Worker) added, "George Galloway has pulled off a spectacular political comeback by winning Thursday's Bradford West parliamentary by-election by a landslide." Nicholas Watt (Guardian) reports:
Ed Miliband was facing renewed criticism of his leadership of the Labour party after George Galloway swept back into parliament, achieving one of the greatest byelection upsets in recent history.
As Miliband said he would learn the lessons from the defeat in Bradford West, the shadow public health minister, Diane Abbott, said Labour had underestimated the popularity of Galloway and the Iraq war remained "unforgotten and unforgiven".
