George Galloway spent more than £150,000 in expenses during his four months as Rochdale MP, official documents show.
The leader of the Workers Party became the town’s Member of Parliament after storming to victory at the Rochdale by-election at the end of February 2024. He came up short against Labour’s Paul Waugh at the July general election, cutting his parliamentary tenure to just four months.
During that short time period, he spent £154,930.25, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) data. These costs have been spread out across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.
Breakdown of expenses
The majority of this cash - £106,098.30 - was spent on staffing. An MP’s staff are entitled to redundancy payments of around four months, meaning his staff would have been paid for at least eight months of the year.
The next largest sum was spent on setting up his office, costing £21,624.60. Office costs include rent payments, equipment and maintenance. Another £16,042.16 was spent on payroll, marked under miscellaneous.
By comparison, current MPs for Rochdale - Paul Waugh - and Heywood and Middleton North MP Elsie Blundell spent around £180,000 during the same time period. However, both MPs have served in the House of Commons for much longer than Mr Galloway.
Workers Party response
A spokesperson for the Workers Party said: "The Workers Party at the General Election polled the sixth-highest number of votes of any all-Britain political party, despite the fact we ranked 36th in terms of financial income. The Electoral Commission and Parliament have been completely satisfied with all accounts and returns."
"The cost of initially setting up and establishing an office and machinery are the same whether you are in four months or four years."
"It took the current MP many months to bother setting up an office, and this clearly demonstrates that we put all our energy and every penny we were entitled to into serving the people of Rochdale and giving them the representation they so badly needed."
"Under Labour, they are once again taken for granted."
Galloway's political career
The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant is currently living in Russia in self-imposed exile. This follows the former Labour Party politician being detained at Gatwick Airport by counter-terrorism police in September.
He served as an MP for five different constituencies during his parliamentary career spanning five decades. He represented Glasgow Hillhead and Glasgow Kelvin for Labour in parliament from 1987 until 2003 when he was expelled and became an independent.
He went on to lead the Respect Party, representing Bethnal Green and Bow between 2005 and 2010 before taking Bradford West in a by-election in 2012, where he served for three years.
