The British elections on July 4 brought significant drama from the national results down to local races. George Galloway, a former member of Parliament, lost his reelection to Labour Party candidate Paul Waugh. Galloway has been the leader of the Workers Party in Britain since he founded it in 2019. Waugh is a former political journalist who has previously worked for Britain’s Independent and Evening Standard newspapers and who grew up in the town. 

Galloway has never shied away from controversy. In 1994, he drew criticism for meeting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and telling him, “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.” He was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 for criticizing then-Prime Minister Tony Blair over the war in Iraq. His fame reached its height in 2006 when he impersonated a cat on a reality television show. Basically, he’s built a career around theatrics rather than effective policy implementation.