Will his campaign help keep Iraq in the news?

The ex-Labour and now Respect MP, George Galloway is to stand in the East End of London at the next General Election. He made his announcement after winning his High Court libel action against the Daily Telegraph newspaper. He has chosen the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, currently held for Labour by Oona King.

Respect won a council seat in nearby Tower Hamlets in July. Mr Galloway is currently the MP for Glasgow Govan, but was kicked out of the Labour Party after making a series of anti-war comments.

Earlier in the day he been awarded £150,000 damages over what were described as “outrageous and incredibly damaging” claims that he was in the pay of Saddam Hussein.

Apart the prospect of Labour losing a seat the campaign will attract a lot of media attention and will help keep Iraq in the news during the campaign. Whether this has a wider imact is hard to say.

There will certainly be a betting market on the seat at the election. In 2001 this was the result:-

LAB 19,380 50.38%
CON 9,323 24.23%
LD 5,946 15.46%
OTH 3,821 9.93%

Election betting odds.