October 24, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 27, 1424

LONDON, Oct 23: A flamboyant British politician who denounced US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as “wolves” during the Iraq invasion was expelled from Mr Blair’s ruling Labour Party on Thursday.

George Galloway, member of parliament for Glasgow, Scotland, confirmed his expulsion as he emerged from a party hearing in London and angrily condemned the tribunal as a “kangaroo court”.

Most of the charges stemmed from an interview the left-wing firebrand gave to Abu Dhabi Television in March.

The life-long maverick had been accused by the Labour Party of inciting Arabs to fight the US-led troops during the Iraq invasion and encouraging British troops to disobey “illegal orders”.

He was one of Britain’s most outspoken and controversial critics of the invasion.

His supporters praised him for speaking his mind while his critics accused him of being an apologist for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whom he visited last year, and mockingly labelled him “MP for Baghdad Central”.

MR Galloway started libel proceedings in June against Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper after it reported he had been in the pay of the Iraqi government. American newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, retracted a similar story alleging Galloway received 10 million dollars to boost Iraq’s reputation in the West.

Blair’s decision to invade Iraq provoked widespread resistance in Britain and his popularity has since slumped.

An unrepentant Galloway said: “Mr Blair’s response to the disaster of the war is to attack those who stood against the war and to root them out of British politics.”—Reuters