George Galloway’s craziest moments – from Big Brother cat antics to hailing Saddam Hussein

The clock had not yet struck 3am when a grinning George Galloway again took to the centre stage of a by-election result, this time in Rochdale.

Clearly puffed up, Britain’s newest MP gently moved down the two podium microphones before launching a proud victory speech with the words “Keir Starmer”, followed by a rehearsed tirade against Labour’s leader over his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Not a throw of orange confetti or the heckling from a Just Stop Oil protester could stop the four-times married MP from savouring the moment in front of the cameras after trouncing the established political parties.

Yet if this extraordinary turn of events didn’t seem new, it was because it wasn’t.

This was his seventh parliamentary victory in four cities for three parties across four decades. The constituency-hopping campaigner is without doubt a master of winning by-elections, managing to stir up local support in regions hit by political bedlam.