George Galloway

"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. You are totally wrong in saying that in most people’s eyes Hezbollah are terrorists. In most people’s eyes Israel is a terrorist state. It’s the fact that you cannot comprehend that fact that leads to bias that runs through all of your reporting and every question that you’ve asked me in this interview!"

"What a silly question! What a silly person you are! Hezbollah is winning the war; you can see on the other half of the screen. Hezbollah is more popular today in Lebanon amongst Christians, amongst Sunnis, amongst Shiite, amongst all Arabs, amongst all Muslims that it has ever been. It’s Israel who’s lost the war, and Bush and Blair for politically organizing the war, who’ve lost politically. This is a defeat of Bush and Blair and Israel. Everybody but you can see it!"

"You don’t give a damn! You don’t give a damn, you don’t even know about the Palestinian families! You don’t even know that they exist! Tell me the name of one member of the seven members of the same family slaughtered on the beach in Gaza by an Israeli warship. You don’t even know their names! But you know the name of every Israeli soldier who has been taken prisoner in this conflict. Because you believe whether you know it or not that Israeli blood is more valuable than the blood of Lebanese or Palestinians. That’s the truth, and the discerning of your viewers already know it."

"Well, I don’t agree that it’s genocide, but I definitely agree that there’s suffering going on there."

"These extremist Islamists locked me in a room and threatened to hang me because we are the democratic alternative to them. We say to young Muslims: we know that you’re angry, you’re right to be angry. But the best way to be angry is to hit the government where it hurts, through politics, through the ballot box, through elections, through engaging with non-Muslims to build a broad front to bring about a change in policies at home and abroad."

"Christianity doesn't come into it. George Bush and Tony Blair are not Christians. Religious people believe in the prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in the profits and how to get a piece of them. So don't ever confuse this with a war of civilizations."

"The roots of this problem definitely are in the fact that not enough groups, trends, parties or individual personalities came into Respect [...] Therefore the perception was created that it was an organisation dominated by the SWP, who have form, or dominated by me, or, later, dominated by Muslims."

"Hamas won the only democratic election ever held in the Arab world so how they can be tyrants I really don't know [...] I am not in favour of Hamas but I am in favour of democracy."

"Because I don't believe that the government of Iran is a dictatorship I have no problem about working for Press TV in London which is a British owned television station. I'm not responsible for the government of Ahmedinijad. I'm not responsible for the leadership of Press TV."

"Let me tell you, I think that Julian Assange's personal sexual behaviour is something sordid, disgusting, and I condemn it. But ... Even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape. At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it."

"[One of the women] Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know. I mean not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion."

"It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

"Are you an Israeli? I don't debate with Israelis. I have been misled, sorry I don't recognise Israel and I don't debate with Israelis"

"I refused this evening at Oxford University to debate with an Israeli, a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel. 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."

"Thatcher described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist". I was there. I saw her lips move. May she burn in the hellfires...Tramp the dirt down."

"We did not suspend our democracy in our darkest hours why are we suspending it now? the fawning over Thatcher had gone too far... This put the tin hat on it the idea that we should suspend a vital part of our democratic process for a party political and private funeral, Mr Churchill didn’t ask for Parliament to be silenced, for confrontations across the House to be forbidden. When our soldiers were being laid waste in the Norway debate, the House of Commons perhaps rose to its finest 20th Century moment. Nobody said: "Our armed forces have suffered a disaster, the House of Commons cannot meet, the clash of ideas cannot be heard, we must muffle the drums and silence ourselves.""

"I am in the House of Commons every day; I just do not want to vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee"

"It's not just people with a percentage of the vote who have the right to speak. All of us have the right to speak. What happened to Farage looked ugly in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. And the SNP I fear will take you down a road where grudge is everything."

"It was al Qaeda who used the chemical weapons. Who gave al Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here's my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons."

"I don’t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration of course [...] But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating. The hyena can bounce on the lion’s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I’m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I’m going off now to plan the next campaign."

"I've always been a Labour man. I consider myself real Labour. I've never been a Marxist, or a Trotskyist, or any other kind of –ist other than a Labourist. If it weren't for Mr Blair and the Iraq war, I would never have been out of the party in the first place."

"[On Nigel Farage] We are not pals. We are allies in one cause. Like Churchill and Stalin..."

"The 'All-Asian short-list' hand-picked by Keith Vaz is just not good enough for the people of Gorton, one of the most deprived constituencies in Britain The short-listing, which excluded many better candidates, is the latest in a long line of insults delivered by mainstream parties to local communities."

"If the Bank of England is “independent” who took the decision to steal Venezuela's gold?"

"During my time in Venezuela... when I looked at the news stands it astonished me that the vast majority of the newspapers and the magazines owned by the rich were spewing out their anti-Chavez propaganda... the people who told you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that we must invade and destroy Iraq... that we must invade & destroy Libya for freedom and democracy... invade and destroy Syria in the interests of human rights & democracy... and many other places in the world. The same people who told you all these lies are telling you to hate Nicolas Maduro... [they] want to march you into yet another disaster... ask yourself.... If they were lying then why are they telling the truth now? ...Viva Venezuela, Viva Chavez, Viva Maduro!!"

"While the so-called European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to recognise a man in the street as President of Venezuela, the African Union voted unanimously to endorse the presidency of Maduro and Venezuelan sovereignty. Just think about that..."

"The former MP posted on the social media site after the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday night. He praised Liverpool's win, before adding: "No #Israël flags on the Cup!" - appearing to reference Tottenham's strong links with the Jewish community...He defended the comment, claiming a number of Tottenham fans were flying the flag of Israel in the crowd and it showed an affiliation to a "racist state"."

"[Referring to pro-democracy protesters] These people should know that Hong Kong is China. No country, absolutely no country, will allow an existential threat to emerge on its territory, to its own sovereignty, without responding in a way that brings the situation under control."

"We are not ashamed of our country's flag. Citizens of other states wave their flags, proudly. Why should the people of Britain not be proud of their state? (on Facebook, 26 February 2021)"

"I'm voting #Tory with my first vote for the incumbent MSP. And then for myself and [other A4U candidates] on the list. Now THAT is @Alliance4Unity."

"As the father of five mixed-race children I treat #Humza's accusation that I'm a racist with contempt."

"[M]ake Rochdale great again."

"Princess Kate has been missing for almost 80 days. There've been three faked photos and millions of rumours. What are the royals covering up? Is she dead or has she downed tools?"

"Conservative Back Bench Members have an unseemly and shabby desire to rubbish and eventually smash a section of the British work force that has served this country well. ... There are few less pleasant sights than to see well-upholstered, sleek and wealthy Conservative Members insulting a body of men who work hard for a living and who have done so for many centuries."

"All faiths must be prepared to be as rigorously tested as each other and none can expect a special hiding place behind the law."

"I'm arguing this should not be published, not because of the threats but because of the offence that it has caused to the majority of Muslims. They have a right to expect some genuflection towards what they feel. To publish a paperback would cause an unnecessary distress to a large and significant and vulnerable section of our society."

"The Tories and their friends are laughing all the way to the bank at the disunity in Scotland. We must extend the hand of friendship to the SNP."

"Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability, and I want you to know that we are with you, hatta al-nasr, hatta al-nasr, hatta al-Quds until victory, until victory, until Jerusalem."

"We are being asked to sell the banner which has flown in Scotland with great success, a banner which is showing no sign of becoming unpopular."

"I am on the anti-imperialist left."

"If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life."

"[On Tony Blair and George W. Bush] They have lied to the British air force and navy when they said the battle of Iraq would be very quick and easy. They attacked Iraq like wolves. They attacked civilians. It is better for Blair and Bush to stop this crime and this catastrophe. It is time for them to return to the UN security council and give diplomacy a chance."

"The wolves are Bush and Blair, not the soldiers. The soldiers are lions led by donkeys, sent to kill and be killed."

"[On David Blunkett] By a mile, it is the most illiberal, vindictive, biliously foaming Home Secretary of modern times. He has done more to destroy the concept of Labour being a party of equality and fairness than any other person... I hope his guide dog savages his ankles."

"[Referring to the The Christian Science Monitor] This newspaper published on its front page in every country in the world that I had taken $10m from Saddam Hussein. That was a grave and serious libel...Of course the documents were a forgery and a newspaper of that importance ought to have made the effort, both morally and legally, to establish the authenticity of those documents before they published them."

"I'm strongly against abortion. I believe life begins at conception, and therefore unborn babies have rights. I think abortion is immoral."

"How can you have a real election with hundreds of thousands of Crusader soldiers occupying the country, drawing up the electoral law, deciding who is allowed to take part in the elections, and utterly dominating the political life of the country?"

"The people who invaded and destroyed Iraq and have murdered more than a million Iraqi people by sanctions and war will burn in Hell in the hell-fires, and their name in history will be branded as killers and war criminals for all time. Fallujah is a Guernica, Falluajah is a Stalingrad, and Iraq is in flames as a result of the actions of these criminals."

"If I had lost I would have been homeless, I would have had everything I possess taken from me and would have been bankrupted and forced out of public office. In those circumstances I don't feel in any way happy about the award of £150,000."

"Oona King voted to kill a lot of women in the last few years. Many of them had much darker skins than her."