Respect Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 25 January 2004 (2004-01-25) |
| Dissolved | 18 August 2016 (2016-08-18) |
| Succeeded by | Respect Renewal Left List |
| Youth wing | Student RESPECT |
| Membership(2014) | 640[1] |
| Ideology | Socialism Euroscepticism[2] |
| Political position | Left-wing[3][4][5] tofar-left[6] |
| European affiliation | European Anti-Capitalist Left |
| Colours | Red and green |
| Slogan | "Peace, Justice & Equality" |
TheRespect Party was aleft-wing tofar-leftsocialistpolitical party active in theUnited Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in theHouse of Commons and nineteen councillors inlocal government.
The Respect Party was established in London bySalma Yaqoob andGeorge Monbiot. Arising in the aftermath of the2003 invasion of Iraq, it grew out of theStop the War Coalition and from the start revolved largely aroundopposition to the United Kingdom's role in theIraq War. Uniting a range of leftist and anti-war groups, it was unofficially allied to theMuslim Association of Britain (MAB) and theSocialist Workers Party (SWP), a far-left,Marxist group. In2005, Respect's candidateGeorge Galloway was elected MP forBethnal Green and Bow and the party came second in three other constituencies. Respect made further gains in the2006 and2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked. In 2007, a schism emerged in the party between SWP supporters and theRespect Renewal group led by Galloway and Yaqoob; the former group left the party to form theLeft List. Over the coming years, Respect gradually lost its council seats and it deregistered with theElectoral Commission in 2016.
Avowedly socialist and opposed tocapitalism, Respect called for the nationalisation of much of the UK economy, increased funding to public services, and further measures to tackle poverty and discrimination. It wasEurosceptic and promoted ananti-imperialist worldview. It was alsoanti-Zionist, opposing the existence of Israel and endorsing thePalestine Solidarity Campaign. Due to its links with MAB, several commentators claimed thatIslamism was a component of its ideology and regarded it as part of a wider alliance between socialists and Islamists withinWestern Europe. Respect's voting base was primarily among theBritish Muslim communities inEast London,Birmingham andBradford, where it built upon opposition to the Iraq War and disenchantment among leftist voters with the governingLabour Party.
The political scientistsMatthew Goodwin andRobert Ford characterised Respect as a "broad coalition of left-wing interests" which had arisen in opposition to theNew Labour government and the UK's involvement in the invasion of Iraq.[7] Other political scientists characterised the party asfar-left.[6] The socialist activistTariq Ali characterised the party's programme as beingsocial democratic in orientation.[8] Eran Benedek described the party as "an amalgamation of radical international socialism and Islamism",[9] adding that its radical socialist position was informed byMarxism–Leninism andTrotskyism.[10]
Benedek characterised it as a manifestation of whatAmir Taheri called the "Marxist-Islamist coalition", which united around opposition to the United States, a desire to destroy the state of Israel, and a wish to overthrow international capitalism.[10] Similarly, Emmanuel Karagiannis characterised the party as "the epitome" of the "convergence" between radical left and Islamist groups in Western Europe,[11] andNick Cohen described it as an "alliance ... between theTrotskyist far left and the Islamic far right".[12]
The party's policies have been described as "traditionally leftist and anti-capitalist".[5]Respect encouraged the nationalisation of many sectors of the economy, including the railways, water, gas, electricity, and theNorth Sea oil industry.[13] It urged a substantial increase incorporation tax in order to increase funding to public services.[13] It sought to overturn what it described as "anti-trade union" legislation,[5] and to introduce policies to deal with issues of poverty and discrimination.[13] Respect promotedrevolutionary socialism andinternational socialism.[14] The party was largely hostile to Westerncapitalism andneoliberalism, and interpreted many world events through the prism ofanti-imperialism,[15] calling for an end to what it characterised as imperialist wars like that in Iraq.[5] Respect wasanti-globalization, believing that it resulted in the exploitation of the working class.[13] It also expressed aEurosceptic approach to theEuropean Union, deeming the Union to be lacking in democracy and exploitative toward the working class.[13]
Respect wasanti-Zionist and, according to Benedek, rejected "the right to independent Jewish statehood in Israel".[16] It presented this position through the terminology ofsocial justice andhuman rights.[17] One of its core principles was stated support for thePalestinian people and opposition to what Respect described as "the apartheid system that oppresses them".[10] It was constitutionally committed to supporting thePalestine Solidarity Campaign and the boycotting of Israel.[10] It calls for Israel to withdraw from any land conquered in 1967, and for the right of return to be granted to all Palestinians forced to move on the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.[17] On its website and published fliers, it included maps of theLevant in which the entirety of Israel was labelled "Occupied Palestine".[18] In 2017, the party's website asserts: "Respect supports the idea of a democratic bi-national solution of one state from theJordan River to theMediterranean Sea in which all people, Jews, Muslims and Christians live equally; one man, one woman, one vote" and says British foreign policy should recognise Britain's "partial responsibility for the problem by their participation in the creation of the state of Israel".[19]
According to the party's national council memberYvonne Ridley, speaking at London'sImperial College in February 2006, Respect "is a Zionist-free party... if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out."[17][20]
The rejection of Israel's right to exist and the characterisation of it as a garrison ofAmerican imperialism in the Middle East had been espoused by the SWP even prior to the establishment of Respect.[17]
In February 2013,George Galloway walked out of a debate organised byChrist Church, Oxford because his opponent wasEylon Levy, an Israeli citizen.[21] He explained his actions thus: "The reason is simple: no recognition, no normalisation. Just boycott, divestment and sanctions, until the apartheid state is defeated. I never debate with Israelis nor speak to their media. If they want to speak about Palestine – the address is the PLO."[22] TheZionist Federation called it a "racist" walkout displaying "xenophobic" tendencies.[23]
Respect was supportive of anti-Zionist Islamist militant groups likeHezbollah andHamas.[11] In July 2006, Respect officialLindsey German stated that "whatever disagreements I have with Hamas and Hezbollah, I would rather be in their camp... they want democracy. Democracy in the Middle Eastis Hamas,is Hezbollah".[18] Galloway met with Hamas leaderKhaled Mashal In September 2006, and that November the party's national-secretaryJohn Rees attended theBeirut International Conference organised by Hezbollah.[18]
Respect emerged from the British anti-war movement which had developed from late 2001 onward.[24] TheStop the War Coalition (StWC) had been established in September 2001, with a central role being played by theSocialist Workers Party (SWP), which was then the largest radical left group in the UK.[24] The StWC's president wasTony Benn, aLabour Member of Parliament (MP) until 2001, while it also gained the support of several rebel Labour MPs, among themKaty Clark,Jeremy Corbyn,Tam Dalyell,Alice Mahon, and George Galloway.[24] The StWC had also attracted significant support from within Britain's Muslim community, and theMuslim Association of Britain (MAB) officially affiliated itself with the coalition.[24] The movement politicised a large number of young British Muslims, among themSalma Yaqoob, who became the head of the StWC branch inBirmingham.[24]
Galloway later revealed that, about a year before the UK and US launched the Iraq War, he had broached the subject of leaving Labour and establishing a new party with his friendsSeumas Milne andAndrew Murray.[14] At the time—he later stated—he was of the view that UK Prime MinisterTony Blair and US PresidentGeorge W. Bush had already committed themselves to invading Iraq.[14] Galloway was vocal in his opposition to Blair's calls for an invasion, and in May 2003 he was suspended from the Labour Party and then expelled in October, having been found to have brought it into disrepute.[25] He then announced that he would stand against Labour in the2004 European Parliament elections, and that he would "seek to unify the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war, in a referendum on Tony Blair".[25]
The two main instigators of the party were Yaqoob andGeorge Monbiot, a journalist withThe Guardian.[25] They had been part of a discussion surrounding the unification of a broad range of anti-war forces that were to the left of Labour, a successor to the Socialist Alliance electoral list that had contested the2001 general election.[25] They wanted to reach out beyond the far left's traditional support base and gain support from peace activists and religious groups, particularly the Muslim community.[25] In November 2003, a number of public meetings were held under the title of "British Politics at the Crossroads", at which it was agreed that a new political party should be established.[25] At a convention on 24 January 2004, the party, titled "Respect – the Unity Coalition", was officially declared.[25] The name "RESPECT" was acontrived acronym forrespect,equality,socialism,peace,environmentalism,community, andtrade unionism.[26][4] Galloway said in April 2004: "Respect. It's a young word. It's a black word. It's the first postmodern name for an electoral political movement; most are one or other arrangement of the words The, Something, and Party. With respect, we're different."[27] Opposition to the Iraq War was the party's primary issue, around which it galvanised much of its support.[14]
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At its foundation, the party also called for a halt toprivatisation and the renationalisation of the British railways.[25] Although it did not secure the full backing of any major trade unions, some local branches of theNational Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)—which had disaffiliated from Labour in February 2004—voted to support Respect.[25] Although containing members from both the SWP and MAB,[14] Respect was not a formal coalition between the two groups.[14] From the beginnings of Respect, there remained tension within the party between SWP members and Muslim leaders.[28] This alliance was also criticised by some observers; in June 2004, the political commentatorNick Cohen wrote that "for the first time since the Enlightenment, a section of the left is allied with religious fanaticism and, for the first time since the Hitler-Stalin pact, a section of the left has gone soft on fascism."[29]
Respect initially tried to form an electoral pact with theGreen Party of England and Wales but this proved unsuccessful.[30][31] The Greens stated that they had selected their candidates for the 2004 European Parliamentary elections by postal ballot months previously and that they were also sceptical of the SWP's influence over Respect.[32] After Respect decided to stand candidates against the Greens, Monbiot stepped down from the party in February 2004, claiming that to compete against the Greens might threaten the positions of "two of the best elected representatives in Britain", the GreenMembers of the European Parliament (MEPs)Caroline Lucas andJean Lambert.[33][34]
Respect fielded candidates for both the 2004 elections for the European Parliament (EP) and for theLondon Assembly, attempting to present these elections as a referendum on Blair's Labour government.[33] The party claims that this support was achieved primarily as a result of theanti-war protests and by attracting votes from "disillusioned" Labour voters.[35] The party was widely derided in the British media, which viewed Respect as a single-issue party that would soon disappear from British politics.[33]
Respect polled a quarter of a million votes in the EP election.[33] Its proportion of the national vote was 1.7%, which grew to 5% in London, although it failed to win any seats.[5][36] The strong showing of the Greens and theUK Independence Party had been part of the reason for this failure to secure a seat. In the London Assembly election, Respect secured 4.5% of the vote, meaning that they did not secure a seat on the Assembly.[37] However, within both theLondon Borough of Newham and theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets—both areas with large Muslim populations—Respect secured the largest number of votes, with over 20% in both.[38] Respect mockedKen Livingstone's Labour candidacy as the "Blair Mayor Project".[39]
Respect's first election victory was in the council by-election for theSt Dunstan's and Stepney Green ward of Tower Hamlets, where its candidate, Oliur Rahman, secured 31% of the vote.[38][40] At theBirmingham Hodge Hill andLeicester South by-elections, both held on 15 July 2004, the party gained 6.3% and 12.7% of the vote respectively.[38] At the time, following defections from other parties, Respect had a council seat inNuneaton and another inPreston.[41]
The coalition put up candidates in 26 constituencies across England and Wales,[42] just under half of them from the SWP.[43] However, Britain'sfirst past the post electoral system made it difficult for small parties to make gains unless they geographically concentrated their vote.[44] Respect recognised that East London, an area with large numbers of MuslimBritish Bangladeshis, would be electorally lucrative, particularly as three of the area's four sitting Labour MPs had voted in favour of British participation in the invasion of Iraq.[38] At the2005 general election Respect fielded candidates in this area: Lindsey German inWest Ham,Abdul Khaliq Mian inEast Ham, Rahman inPoplar and Canning Town, and Galloway inBethnal Green and Bow.[38]
Galloway sought to unseat the sitting Labour MP,Oona King, and the ensuing campaign for the seat has been cited as "one of the most acrimonious in recent history". King accused Galloway of sexual impropriety, although was later forced to retract those allegations. She alleged that she had been the victim ofantisemitism from Respect supporters after having been pelted with eggs at a Jewish memorial service.[38][10] She also claimed that Respect canvassers had urged Muslims not to vote for her because she is Jewish. Respect threatened legal action if King repeated the claim; John Rees, national secretary of Respect, said "George Galloway and everyone in Respect has a long record of fighting anti-semitism - longer I suspect than Oona King. This kind of rubbish is libellous. Oona King should be more cognisant of the dangers, having already paid out two sets of libel writs to George."[45]
Respect won 0.3% of the national vote, with an average of 6.8% of the vote in the constituencies it had contested; 17 of its candidates failed to have their deposits returned.[46] However, Galloway won the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow by a narrow margin of 823 votes.[38] Galloway's surprise victory provided much momentum for his party.[10] His victory represented the first time that a party to the left of Labour had won a seat in the Houses of Parliament since 1951.[47] Respect also did well in several other constituencies, coming second to Labour in both West Ham and East Ham, and also securing second place inBirmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where Yaqoob had been its candidate, securing 27.5% of the vote.[48]
Respect made "rapid progress", aided by growing finances and the existing campaign experience of the far left.[10] By the end of 2005, in the London Borough of Newham, two Labour and oneLiberal Democrat councillor had defected to Respect.[48] By December 2005, it had an official membership of 5,674.[10] Galloway, however, toldDecca Aitkenhead in April 2012 for aGuardian profile that Respect, at its peak, only had about 3–4,000 members.[49] Its university wing, Student Respect, claimed by 2007 to have branches in over fifty campuses across England and Wales.[10] Benedek suggested that this probably made it the fastest-growing student political group in the UK.[10] The SWP's student group, the Socialist Worker Student Society (SWSS), encouraged its members to join Respect and became largely dormant.[10]
In 2006, Galloway appeared onChannel 4's reality television showCelebrity Big Brother.[48] His hope was to use it as a public relations exercise in which he could promote his views to a wider audience, however this backfired as Channel 4 producers censored most of his political discussions.[48] Media attention instead focused on the fact that he had seemingly abandoned his constituents to appear in the show and on an episode in which he had impersonated a cat.[48] This did little to damage Respect's electoral appeal.[48]
Respect stood about 150 candidates in the 2006 local elections,[48] at which it secured 16 seats.[10] At Respect's campaign launch, Galloway anticipated a "referendum on new Labour", and said the election "will be the last blow that will knock out Tony Blair".[50] In Tower Hamlets, Respect took eleven new council seats, giving it a total of twelve and making it the borough's official opposition to Labour.[51][52][53][54] In Newham, Respect gained 26% of the vote and returned its three councillors, although was disappointed not to gain further ones.[48] In Birmingham, Respect gained 55% of the vote in the Sparkbrook ward, and Yaqoob was elected as the city's first female Muslim councillor.[48][55] None of the new Respect councillors were connected with the SWP. Galloway explained at the time that many Respect supporters "are small business people and wouldn't describe themselves as socialists and are not bound to accept it."[56]
Respect stood 48 candidates in the 2007 local election, of which three were elected.[57] The party had peaked, and following this would witness a decline.[48] In July 2007, Galloway was suspended from the House of Commons for 18 days after the standards and privileges commit accused him of a lack of transparency in the financing of is charity, theMariam Appeal.[58] In August, a Respect councillor in Tower Hamlets resigned, triggering a by-election which Harun Miah narrowly secured for Respect.[59]
The SWP had been members of Respect's "Unity Coalition" since its early years, although relations between them and Galloway had been strained.[59] In August 2007 he wrote a letter to the party's national council stating that Respect had various internal weaknesses, with many deeming this a veiled criticism of the SWP.[59][60] This generated rifts within the SWP itself as two of its members were expelled for refusing to step down as Galloway's parliamentary assistants. By October, SWP publications were claiming that there was a "witch hunt" against socialists within Respect, despite the presence of socialist groups other than the SWP.[59] That month, disagreements between Rahman and Abjol Miah, leader of the Respect group in Tower Hamlets, resulted in four of the borough's councillors resigning the Respect Party whip.[59][61]
By November 2007, Respect had split into two rival factions. The first consisted largely of members affiliated with the SWP and included the rebel councillors from Tower Hamlets.[59] The second, which named itselfRespect Renewal, was led by Galloway and Yaqoob and had the support of virtually all of the party's elected representatives and national council.[62] According to political scientist Timothy Peace, these events were "characteristic of the faction fighting that has always plagued the radical left."[63] The SWP-allied faction controlled the party's website and claimed that Galloway had simply left the party, of which they were the rightful representatives. The Respect Renewal group changed the locks of the party's national office and barred access to SWP supporters.[64] On 17 November, both groups held conferences at which they claimed to be the legitimate manifestation of Respect.[64][65] TheElectoral Commission subsequently ruled that control of the party's name rested withFire Brigades Union activist Linda Smith, the nominating officer; she had sided with Galloway, meaning that the Respect Renewal group were able to continue using the name. The SWP faction split and began using the nameLeft List.[64]
The SWP attributed the split to a shift to the right by Galloway and his allies, motivated by electoralism (seeking to gain Muslim votes) and attacks on the left.[66] This opinion was shared byHilary Wainwright, who saw a common pattern of "leaderism" in this and other leftist debacles, although she thought Galloway possessed positive qualities.[67] SWP-dominated branches of Respect were reportedly less active than those with far fewer members of that group. A narrow failure of John Rees in 2006 to gain election in the Tower Hamlets local elections, while the 12 candidates from the Bangladeshi community were all elected, was also alleged to have alienated the SWP from the project.[66]
In December 2009, the party de-registered (removed) itself from the Register of Political Parties for Northern Ireland,[68] but remained registered for England, Scotland and Wales.
Respect went into gradual decline after 2008.[24] By this point its primary unifying issue, anger at Labour over the Iraq War, had become less salient,[69] with the political scientist Stephen Driver suggesting that for this reason Respect "struggled to be anything more than a one-trick pony".[70] The party was in disarray following the schism and only forwarded one candidate for the 2008 London Assembly elections.[64] This candidate,Hanif Abdulmuhit, stood for theCity and East constituency and secured 15% of the vote but trailed behind their Labour andConservative Party rivals.[64] Overall Respect attained 2.4% of the London Assembly vote, below the 5% threshold needed to secure a seat.[64] Galloway had headed the Respect (London-wide) top-up list.[71] Respect had not fielded a candidate for London Mayor, instead endorsing Labour'sKen Livingstone, while Left List had fielded German, who secured significantly fewer votes than she had gained as a Respect candidate for Mayor in 2004.[64] The outbreak of the2008 Gaza War provided renewed impetus for Respect's campaigning.[64] Throughout much of 2009, the party devoted much of its resources to raising funds for theViva Palestina aid convoy to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in theGaza Strip.[64] The first convoy, which set off fromGlasgow in February 2009, was led by Respect memberKevin Ovenden.[64]
Respect Renewal stood 10 candidates in the local council elections also taking place on 1 May across England and Wales. They returned one new councillor, Nahim Khan, in Birmingham Sparkbrook, who received 42.64% of the vote.[72] The party did not field any candidates for the 2009 European Parliament elections, instead urging supporters to vote for either the Green Party or the left-wing Eurosceptic alliance,No2EU.[73] Instead,Arthur Scargill'sSocialist Labour Party proved to be the most successful radical left party in the election, securing 1.1% of the national vote.[70]
Respect fielded ten candidates in the 2010 general election,[74] with a particular focus on three that they considered winnable.[75] The party's manifesto highlighted that ahung parliament would be likely, and that if there were three Respect MPs in the House of Commons then they would have a chance of forming a coalition with a minority government.[74] Their three targeted seats wereBirmingham Hall Green, which was being contested by Yaqoob—who was then party leader—Poplar and Limehouse, which was contested by Galloway, and Galloway's existing seat of Bethnal Green and Bow, which was being defended by Miah.[74] The election however proved disastrous for Respect.[76] Labour secured all three of the seats that Respect had targeted, with Galloway and Miah being pushed into third place with 17% of the vote.[76] Nationwide it had secured 33,251 votes, less than half of that which it had attained in the 2005 general election.[76] Local elections were held on the same day which also resulted in significant losses for Respect; in Tower Hamlets it went from having eight councillors to one, and in Newham it lost all its councillors.[76]
However the party had better results elsewhere. InBirmingham Hall Green constituency Respect candidateSalma Yaqoob performed better, receiving 12,240 votes, 25.1%, placing second after Labour candidateRoger Godsiff, who received 16,039 votes, 32.9%.[77]
Respect fielded eight more candidates in other constituencies, who together polled 4,319 votes.Arshad Ali received 1,245 votes, 3.1%, inBradford West, and Kay Phillips received 996 votes, 2.9%, inBlackley and Broughton.[78] In total, Respect candidates received 33,269 votes, which amounted to 6.8% of the total vote in the constituencies where they stood and 0.1% of the total UK vote.[79]
During the2010 General Election the Green Party stood down in favour of Respect candidates inBirmingham Sparkbrook andBlackley and Broughton. While Respect agreed not to stand against theTrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate inSalford and Eccles or to oppose the Greens standing inManchester Central,[80] indicating the beginning of a tentative co-operation between the three parties locally[81][failed verification]. Galloway told Decca Aitkenhead in April 2012: "When we lost the three parliamentary seats in 2010 that we'd hoped to win, we became almost minuscule"; Respect he said then had about 8-900 members.[49]
Abjol Miah was elected as the National Chair of Respect in January 2011.[82] After the introduction of adirectly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets—something that Respect had campaigned for locally—the party backed the successful independent candidateLutfur Rahman.[83]
On 5 May 2011, in the2011 Scottish Parliament election, the Respect Party, on whose list Galloway stood in theGlasgow electoral region, received 6,972 votes (3.3%).[84][85] He campaigned under the banner of Coalition Against the Cuts, but the vote was insufficient to become aMember of the Scottish Parliament in the proportional voting system used.[83] In the Birmingham City Council election of 2011, Respect lost one of its three councillors to Labour.[83] In July, Yaqoob then resigned for health reasons, leaving the party with only one councillor in the city.[86]
Galloway successfully contestedBradford West in aby-election held on 29 March 2012, following the resignation of Labour MPMarsha Singh due to ill health.[87][88]
Galloway and his supporters, such as theMuslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK), were active in a campaign againstImran Hussain, the Muslim deputy leader of Bradford City Council, whose commitment to his faith was queried because he is reported to drink alcohol.[89] Meanwhile, one of Galloway's supporting speakers at a rally on the Sunday before the byelection was Abjol Miah, once group leader of the Respect councillors in Tower Hamlets, who is also active in the IFE.[89][90]
Galloway was elected with a majority of 10,140 with one of the largest swings in the polls against the defending political party in modern political history.[91]
Yaqoob resigned as party leader in September, following Galloway's remarks about rape with respect to theJulian Assange case.[92] She told a reporter fromThe Guardian that she had had to make a choice between "standing up for the rights of women" and her admiration for Galloway's "anti-imperialist stance".[93][94] In October 2012, party secretary Chris Chilvers said Respect had 2,000 members, while before the by-election it had 300.[95] Arshad Ali, who succeeded Yaqoob as leader, resigned as national chair in December 2012 after it was discovered that he has a spent conviction for electoral fraud (dating from his time in the Labour Party), although at this point the Electoral Commission still had Yaqoob listed as the party's leader.[96]
Kate Hudson had originally been selected for theManchester Central by-election, but stood down in early September following Galloway's comments on rape,[97] and left the party in October. In the same month, Respect announced that Catherine Higgins, a local "community advocate", would contest the by-election on 15 November 2012. Higgins finished ninth out of 12 candidates.
In November 2012, at a rally in Rotherham, Respect announced thatYvonne Ridley had been chosen to contend theRotherham by-election.[98] The election took place on 29 November 2012; Ridley finished fourth with 8% of the vote, ahead of both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates, but behind UKIP and the BNP.[99]
Respect won five seats onBradford Council in May 2012 following Galloway's success in the by-election at the end of March. Amid a fiercely fought campaign, there were claims and complaints of violence and harassment by the Respect Party and its opponents.[100] The party came second inOldham's Werneth ward andTower Hamlets' Weavers ward.
After several months of inconclusive reports in the media,[101] on 10 August 2013, the BradfordTelegraph & Argus reported that Galloway might not be a candidate in Bradford at the2015 general election and instead stand in the2016 London Mayoral election.[102] The five Respect councillors in Bradford elected the previous year resigned from the party whip on 15 August 2013[103] after coming into conflict with Galloway over his comments that he might run in the London mayoral election.[102] They argued that the MP was needed in Bradford.[103] Two of the councillors had said the MP should resign if he intended to stand in London; Galloway and his associates had immediately suspended them, although their three fellow council members were in agreement.[104] One of the other three councillors, Alyas Karmani, then leader of the Respect group on Bradford City Council, said the party had not, in fact, been consulted about Galloway's plans.[104]
Galloway had also claimed that the councillors were working against him and the party with Aisha Ali Khan, his former aide, and her husband.[103] (Both Ali Khan and her husband later received criminal convictions related to her former employment by Galloway.)[105] After no retraction of the assertions made against them had been forthcoming,[106] the five councillors entirely severed their connections with Respect towards the end of October and then intended to sit as independents for the remainder of their term of office.[107] Claims that they had been "conniving" with Galloway's former aide were false, they said.[108] A spokesman from Respect accused them of attempting to gain control of the party in Bradford.[106]
In the2014 local elections, Respect stood eight candidates in Bradford, but none of them won in their council wards.[109] Two other Respect councillors lost their seats, leaving Respect without any representation on local authorities.[110] In 2014, the party had only 630 members and assets of £1,947.[111] By that point, the party was largely a vehicle for Galloway's personality.[111]
This changed in March 2015 when four of the former Respect councillors rejoined and a Labour member of the council, Asama Javed, left the party and aligned herself with Respect.[112] The remaining councillor of the five who resigned in August 2013, Mohammad Shabbir, announced he was joining the Labour group on the council in mid-April 2015 with immediate effect rather than rejoining Respect with his former colleagues.[113] In July 2015, the four councillors who had rejoined reversed their decision and decided to continue under the Bradford Independent Group label, although rejoining Respect was still a possibility.[114]
At the 2015 general election, Respect had four candidates, inHalifax and two Birmingham seats (Hall Green andYardley) in addition to Bradford West.[115] Where Respect was not standing in the election, Galloway had urged a vote for Labour in 2013, having met and been impressed with then Labour leaderEd Miliband.[116] None of the Respect candidates were elected. In George Galloway's own seat, the 10,000 majority he had gained at the 2012 Bradford West by-election was reversed, and the Labour Party candidateNaz Shah became the constituency's MP with a majority of 11,420 votes.[117]
In December 2015, it became known that former Respect Party leaderSalma Yaqoob had applied to join the Labour Party in Hall Green followingJeremy Corbyn's election as leader. Her application was rejected by her local constituency Labour Party owing to her standing against Labour candidates.[118]
Robert Colvile reported inThe Spectator at the beginning of January 2016:
Respect barely exists in Bradford—or anywhere else. In 2013, the membership fell to 230 people. Last year [2014], that had rebounded to 630—but beyond their membership fees, Respect raised only £1,133 in donations. Its assets were just £1,947.[1]
Following his defeat in the 2015 general election, Galloway announced that he would stand as Respect's candidate in the2016 London mayoral election.[119] During hustings, he praised newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn,[120] but condemned Labour Mayoral candidateSadiq Khan as a "flip-flop merchant" and a "product of the Blairite machine".[121] In the final result of the London Mayoral election held on 5 May 2016, Galloway came seventh with 37,007 (1.4%) first preference votes. After second preference were accounted for, Sadiq Khan became London mayor.[122] Respect failed to hold any of their seats in Bradford in the 2016 local elections, leaving them without any representation at any level of government.[123]
The Respect Party "voluntarily deregistered" from theElectoral Commission's Register of Political Parties on 18 August 2016, twelve years after it initially registered.[124][125]
Since its formation, Respect has presented itself as being "genuinely left" and has sought to appeal to leftist voters dissatisfied with the Labour Party's shift to the centre under the leadership of Blair andGordon Brown.[126] There has however been little electoral support for parties to the left of Labour in Britain (with some exceptions to theLiberal Democrats, who during theNew Labour era broadly positioned themselves to the left), with the party having to seek out an alternative voting base.[126]
The primary electoral support for Respect came from theBritish Muslim community.[127] Traditionally, British Muslims voted for the Labour Party, but many had been disenchanted following the Labour government's decision to invade Iraq.[128] Respect appealed in particular to British Muslims who had been disenchanted by the war.[126] According to Emmanuel Karagiannis, "now that the old working class has assimilated into an expanded middle class, the radical Left is obviously looking for a new constituency, and Europe's deprived and alienated Muslim communities may well be the answer."[11] The political scientist Stephen Driver suggested that this over-reliance on dissatisfied Muslim voters left its electoral base "fragile", for when "the source of the protest disappears, so do the protest votes".[129]
At no point did Respect position itself as a specifically Muslim party akin to theIslamic Party of Britain or theMuslim Party in Birmingham, however from its beginnings it did specifically target Muslims with its campaign material, characterising itself as "the party for Muslims" and focusing on issues of particular concern to British Muslim communities. A local election flyer printed in 2004 featured the slogan "George Galloway – Fighting for Muslim Rights!" It often fielded Muslim candidates to stand in largely Muslim areas, although this was not unusual in British politics, with Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats often doing the same.[130]
Respect's main electoral support base was in East London and Birmingham. However, there were other areas of Britain with large Islamic communities—such asYorkshire,Lancashire, andLeicester—where the party did not do well. Peace suggested that Respect had been successful in East London and Birmingham and not other areas with Muslim communities because these two areas had established anti-war movements and that Respect candidates had already become well known within that movement.[131]
It has also been suggested that Respect's connection to religious groups andmosques has been crucial to the party's success in many areas.[132] It attracted some controversy for allegedly being tied to theIslamic Forum of Europe (IFE), a group based at theEast London Mosque in Tower Hamlets.[133] BothThe Telegraph andDispatches have alleged that Respect activist Miah is an IFE member, although he has denied this.[133][134][135]
Respect received little attention from scholars of politics.[136] This may be due to the perception that it was a single-issue party that provided a protest vote among a particular community.[24] As with the Greens, Respect was recognised as having radical views but was nonetheless widely regarded as a legitimate part of politics in the UK. In this it contrasted with the pariah status accorded to contemporary far-right groups such as theBritish National Party (BNP).[137] In just over two years, it had gained the electoral success that the BNP had taken twenty years to attain.[138]
Respect was controversial within Britain's far-left movement. Far-left criticisms of the party included that it was engaging in political opportunism, that it invited thepetty bourgeoisie into the socialist workers' movement, and that it focused on the narrow sectarian interests of British Muslims rather than the socio-economic issues of the working-class and in doing so neglected feminism and LGBT rights.[28] According toGuardian journalist Dave Hill, Respect was "a case study in the British far left's enduring gift for self-parodic, self-destructive splits".[111]
Respect has been accused of abandoning some traditionalcultural liberal issues, including women's rights, abortion,gay rights, and fightinghomophobia, to attract Muslim support.[139] While Respect included opposition to discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation in its founding declaration,[140] critics claim that Galloway – during the time he was a Respect MP – tended to avoid parliamentary votes involvingequal rights for gay people.[141] In a 2006 interview withPinkNews, Galloway praised New Labour's record on improving gay rights, and says of his absence from one vote that "there was never any doubt about the passage of thecivil partnerships [bill], I wholly support it".[141]
According to a resolution at that year's conference, Respect's 2005 manifesto omitted the "defence of LGBT rights despite policy adopted at last year's AGM and contained in the founding statement". A resolution was passed calling for the end to all discrimination against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals andtransgender people and that this policy would be stated in all of its manifestos and principal election materials.[142] Despite this commitment, Respect and parts of theLGBT community have clashed on several occasions. In November 2005, Respect's second largest single financial donor,Mohammad Naseem,[143] was accused in an article byPeter Tatchell of being homophobic due to his senior position in theIslamic Party of Britain,[144] which Tatchell claimed advocated the "banning of gay organisations" and the "execution of homosexuals".[145] Naseem, however, stated that the Islamic Party was now little more than a think tank, and furthermore, disagreed with the statements on the Islamic Party website which Tatchell pointed to, stating his views on homosexuality as follows: "These things are a matter of personal choice [...] I am not concerned with what people do in their bedrooms."[146] Naseem was also present at Respect's 2005 conference, where the vote to reaffirm Respect's support of LGBT rights was passed unanimously.[147]
In January 2006, an article attacking Tatchell's opposition to the party was written by Respect member and journalistAdam Yosef. Writing forDesi Xpress, Yosef accused Tatchell ofIslamophobia but was attacked by gay organisations for "encouraging violence against Tatchell" and for using "xenophobic" and "homophobic" language. Yosef also used other articles to attacksame-sex unions, describing them as a front for "tax fraud". Tatchell called on Respect to expel Yosef but the party responded with the following statement: "Adam Yosef has the right to voice his own opinions in his own column – they range from an ecstatic review of Birmingham's gay pride to venting his thoughts about Peter Tatchell."[148] However, in October 2009, Yosef pledged his formal support to Tatchell's2010 general election parliamentary candidacy, calling for the left to "embrace a mutual personal and political commitment towards equality and human rights".[149][150][151]
Abul Hussain, a former member of Respect's national council, posted antisemitic comments on Facebook and was expelled for his comments in September 2010. The councillor joked about chopping off a Jewish person'ssidelocks and confiscating theirkippah. He also wrote about Jews, "Here's a penny go put it in the bank and [you] just might get a pound after ten years interest!". The Respect Party stated that "such views are demonstrably incompatible with party membership".[152][153]
In 2011 Carole Swords, ofBow, the chairwoman of the Respect Party in Tower Hamlets, was convicted of a public order offence after an altercation with a Jewish counter-protester, Harvey Garfield, at a protest inside a Covent Garden Tesco Metro supermarket. She was alleged to have struck him in the face, smacking off his eyeglasses, while he was protecting Israeli goods from potentially being damaged.[154] A subsequent appeal in December cleared her of the offence. Swords' defence team claimed Garfield had harassed and intimidated Swords inside the supermarket, and alleging he had called her a "Nazi", a "fishwife" and a "terrorist". The recorder determined that Garfield had followed Swords inside the Tesco and that she had demanded he desist. The recorder could not determine how Garfield's glasses had fallen based on the store footage, and allowed the appeal.[155] Swords had earlier described Zionists as "cockroaches ... bugs [which] need to be stomped out"[154] and at a different rally, Swords had told a Jewish protester to "go back to Russia".[156]
Following Naz Kahn's appointment as Respect's women's officer in Bradford in October 2012, it emerged that Kahn had recently commented on Facebook that "history teachers in our school" were and are "the first to start brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler. What have the Jews done good in this world??"[157]David Aaronovitch inThe Jewish Chronicle wrote:"'What have the Jews done good in this world?' clearly means 'The Jews do only bad'. The Jews haven't suffered as much as they say they have, but insofar as they have suffered it's their own fault and, in any case, they have gone on to inflict equal or more suffering on others. That's 'the Jews' as a group, not 'many Jews', 'some Jews' or 'a few Jews'."[158] Ron McKay, Galloway's spokesman, said Kahn's comments had been written shortly before she joined Respect, on an "unofficial site" (the Respect Bradford Facebook page), and that she "now deeply regrets and repudiates that posting".[157]
The last formal leader of Respect, George Galloway, has been accused byGuardian journalistHadley Freeman of having "said and done things that cross the line from anti-Israel to antisemitic". He threatened to sue her for the comments made on Twitter in February 2015, although the tweet had already been deleted.[159] Her tweet followed theQuestion Time George Galloway in Finchley controversy, an edition of the BBC's political debate series on which Freeman'sGuardian colleagueJonathan Freedland had also appeared and made similar assertions about Galloway's conduct.[159]
Galloway's support forHizbollah andHamas, his refusal to debate with Israeli Jews, and his declaration of Bradford as being an "Israeli-free zone" are among the issues which have led to the attitudes of the politician being thought suspect.[159][160]
And to be honest, although I was impressed by Galloway's oratorical skills, my feminism, my instinctive dislike of leaderism and my aghast observations of the Scargill and then the Sheridan debacles made me wary of an organisation that depended so much on a hero.
Respect publications
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| People | |
