George Galloway is contesting the byelection in Keir Starmer's former seat of Holborn and St Pancras without setting foot in the United Kingdom. Since the campaign began, the seven-time MP has been in South Africa on a speaking tour, in Moscow attending pro-Soviet conferences alongside propagandists who call for the return of Kyiv to Russia, and most recently in Shanghai. His campaign exists entirely online, run by a handful of Workers party activists on the ground and a prolific social media feed posting from foreign capitals. The reason for his absence, Galloway says, is "self-exile" following a September 2024 stop by counter-terrorism police at Gatwick airport under Schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. He and his wife were detained for approximately 11 hours after returning from the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. Officers copied the contents of their phones and asked him, by his account, "Why do you admire Mr Lavrov?" No further legal action followed. Galloway chose not to return. What he has done since is spend considerable time in Russia's orbit. He appeared on a discussion panel with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Forum of the Future in Moscow — an event the Moscow Times described as "far-right," attended also by Errol Musk and Alex Jones. He spoke at the inaugural conference of Sovintern, a pro-Soviet international network where a welcome address from Vladimir Putin was read aloud. He participated in a public discussion with Zakhar Prilepin, a combatant and propagandist who has fought in Ukraine. He gave an interview to RT, where he hosted a talkshow for nine years, saying Moscow in spring was "quite the place to be." His candidacy highlights a genuine anomaly in British electoral law. Any British, Irish, or qualifying Commonwealth citizen over 18 may stand for parliament provided they are not bankrupt, a police officer, a member of the armed forces, a civil servant, or a judge. There is no residency requirement, no obligation to be a registered voter, and evidently no requirement to be present in the country during the campaign. The Electoral Commission confirms this. Galloway's campaign message centres on opposing what he frames as the path to World War III via NATO support for Ukraine. "The biggest issue in the H&StP byelection is the path leading us to WW3 in Ukraine," he posted on X. He has attacked Green candidate Zack Polanski as being "with NATO" and "with Zelensky," while positioning himself as "with Russia" and "with an end to the war." An anti-Andy Burnham image dressed the prime minister in Ukrainian blue and yellow with the caption: "I want you to die for Ukraine. Conscription coming soon!" The practical contest is widely considered a two-horse race between Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali and the Greens' Zack Polanski. Galloway's candidacy is peripheral to the actual result but not to the questions it raises about the integrity of candidate participation, the vulnerability of UK elections to campaigns conducted entirely from adversary-aligned platforms, and the adequacy of electoral rules written for an era when candidates knocked on doors. Separately, Galloway disclosed that Bank of Scotland closed his personal accounts without explanation after 39 years, a practice he described as "debanking." The bank said it does not close accounts based on political beliefs and would not comment on individual cases. Galloway has threatened legal action against Lloyds Banking Group.
