Mr Galloway, who was ejected from the Labour Party in 2003, polled over 56% of ballots, winning over 18,341 votes. Before this election, Labour had held the seat for 40 years, and this election only took place because the party’s Marsha Singh had to retire on health grounds.

Galloway called the victory a “total rejection” of the major political parties, while the rest of the vote saw Labour come in second with 8,201, the Conservatives poll 2,746 votes, and the Lib Dems win 1,505.

In his victory speech, Galloway said that Labour "must stop imagining that working people and poor people have no option but to support them if they hate the Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition partners.

He added, “They have to stop supporting illegal, bloody, costly foreign wars because one of the reasons why they were so decisively defeated this evening is that the public don't believe that they have atoned for their role in the invasion and occupation of other people's countries and the drowning of those countries in blood."

Meanwhile, Labour’s Harriet Harman had the following reaction to the news: "There had been active campaigning over a long period of time, but something did go very badly wrong and our connections, roots and engagement with the local community and people up and down that constituency obviously were not deep enough, not strong enough.”

George Galloway was banished from the Labour Party in 2003 for comments on the Iraq War, urging soldiers to ignore their orders.

He joined the RESPECT Party soon after that, but he remains perhaps best known for his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, where he famously imitated a cat (something that will haunt us forever).