“We crushed Labour by ten thousand votes,” he told supporters back at headquarters. “The second place candidate was not the Conservatives,” but an independent. “This is the first time in British political history that in a by-election both of the major parties were completely crushed,” he said.

“We changed politics in Britain for good,” James Giles, Galloway’s campaign manager, told supporters back at campaign headquarters. “Maybe we have changed politics in the world for good.