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The Battle for Bethnal and Bow

Election on the "Anti-semitic" ticket

George Galloway - The Battle for Bethnal and Bow Election on the

In the May 2005 general election Galloway chose to fight Bethnal Green and Bow for Respect, where 39.2 per cent of the population are Muslim, on an anti-war ticket and was returned by a slim majority to that seat.

Oona King, the Labour MP ousted by George Galloway, said that she was regularly abused as a "yid" and a "Jewish bitch" during an ill-tempered election campaign.

attackers threw eggs at Ms King at a Holocaust memorial

George Galloway - The Battle for Bethnal and Bow attackers threw eggs at Ms King at a Holocaust memorial

Ms King lost her Bethnal Green and Bow seat in London's East End by just 823 votes after Mr Galloway's criticism of the Iraq war won the support of the large Muslim minority in the constituency. The seat had previously been held by Labour since 1924.

Ms King was a long-time opponent of Saddam Hussein's regime, and voted in favour of the war. Ms King, who is black with a Jewish mother, said that she had faced regular anti-Semitic abuse during the campaign.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she described it as "one of the dirtiest campaigns we have ever seen in British politics" and gave warning of the implications for future elections.

"I was fairly shocked by the levels to which it sank," she said. "The thing that I am proudest of in this country is that we have a political system where political intimidation doesn't exist. That, actually, for the first time came to the fore in Bethnal Green and Bow, and I think people around the country should be worried about it."

During the campaign, unknown attackers threw eggs at Ms King at a Holocaust memorial service. She was later again pelted with eggs and had her car tyres slashed by a gang of youths who were protesting against her support for the Iraq war.

Mr Galloway's election team repeatedly denied during the election that any of its supporters had abused Ms King or used anti-Semitic language against her. Respect said it would consider legal action if she repeated such "outrageous rubbish".

Asked how he felt standing against one of only two black women MPs, Mr Galloway claimed that Ms King "voted to kill a lot of women in the last few years. Many of them had much darker skins than her".