After being declared the winning candidate in Rochdale, George Galloway began his speech from the podium.

He said: “Keir Starmer – this is for Gaza. And you will pay a high price, in enabling, encouraging and covering for, the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza strip.

“Rochdale town councillors, I put you on notice now, that I hope to put together a grand alliance…”

Mr Galloway was then interrupted by a woman, shouting that he was a “climate change denier” before she was shouted down and drowned out by shouts of “Gall-o-way! Gall-o-way!”.

He added: “The councillors have to go.

“I want to tell Mr Starmer above all, that the plates have shifted tonight. This is going to spark a movement, a landslide, a shifting of the tectonic plates in scores of parliamentary constituencies.

“Beginning here in the north west, in the West Midlands, in London, from Ilford to Bethnal Green and Bow, Labour is on notice that they have lost the confidence of millions of their voters who loyally and traditionally voted for them, generation after generation.”