 This is Cathy Vogan reporting from the counting room in Rochdale and for the by-election on I am with James. James, who are you? My name is Councillor James Giles. I'm an independent councillor in South London but for the last month I've been the campaign manager here on the Galloway campaign in Rochdale. And how's it going? How's it going for George? Well look, it's going better than our wildest hopes. George will win here comfortably tonight and buy a good margin is my prediction but what we're seeing is a complete abject rejection of party politics here. It's my view it has been for weeks that a certain Dave Tully, the independent, will come second here. Conservatives and Labour, George will tell you often are two cheeks of the same backside and the voters of Rochdale I think will be sending that message loud and clear when we get the declaration here in probably 90 minutes to two hours give or take. How do you think the former Labour candidate will do? Were people confused that they think that they would be voting for Labour in this by-election? Well Mr Alley's family were here. Yeah. As all the candidates sent people to scrutinise the votes. They left the building within an hour. I think that tells you what you need to know about Labour's lackluster campaign. And how did reform do do you think? I think reform will lose their deposit personally but let's wait and see. So this is Joe Laurier the editor of consortium news. Hi. Good to meet with you. What do you think with the main issues you know much has been made about Gaza but there's only 20 to 30 percent Muslim here is that what you think is wanted for George tonight? Well look Gaza's an issue that transcends race it transcends religion. There are several white people I've spoken to on the doors that mentioned Gaza as a primary issue but our slogan throughout has been for Rochdale for Gaza in that order and so we've been talking about the fact you can't be born here anymore because they shut down the maternity unit. Or die? They all die here yeah they shut down the A&E. We've spoken about the grooming gangs here which Labour covered up for years. Labour control the police here, Labour control the council here. We've spoken about wasteful local authority spending here at the hands of Labour and that's a message that resonates with everybody old or young black or white Muslim Christian no religion other and that's why we're on course for a big victory here. Now George is not from this community was not seen as an outsider coming in? Well look the Labour candidate or the ex-Labor candidate, disgraced Labour candidate I don't really know what I should call him at this point the non-entity. He'd never set foot in Rochdale before he had been selected as their candidate. He's a councillor somewhere up in Lancashire so you know George isn't the foreigner here. He's been coming to Rochdale for 25 years. His two children live near here in Greater Manchester. His daughter was born here in Greater Manchester. When you could still be born here? When you could still be born here. He's been coming to Rochdale for a long time and seemingly will be coming here for a long time. Will he be living here in London? Absolutely yes. Have a place to live here and back in London. So he's going to have to give up his already has but he'll still be doing moats. He still will be doing moats on a Wednesday and a Sunday although we'll see about the Wednesday but that's up to him. I don't know anything about that but you'll still be doing moats. Well that's a quite unique situation an MP with a platform like that. Absolutely. A couple of million a week. Yeah moats will be continuing and I'm sure its audience will grow from over a million per show to over two million per show. Is my view on it and who knows maybe he'll even be broadcasting direct from the houses of Parliament. You've been around George this whole period and today the juices are flowing and he's getting geared up again to get back into this. Absolutely. He's coming home. He is known as one of the best orators in the country. Undoubtedly one of the best orators in the world. If you ask me Parliament is sorely lacking that voice and although there's only 200 days left of this Parliament I think things just got interesting. Well let's talk about that for a moment. I mean she's going to have to run again into a yes 200 days to show the people here that he should be sent back again. Right. Consider this a probation period. I don't know if you have that in the States but we do here. You get a job you've got so many months to prove you're up to it. Right. We're going to start the job and it'll be up to the voters in 200 days to decide if they want us to finish the job and I'm quite sure that by the time that 200 days is up they'll want us to finish the job. What can he accomplish in 200 days? Well there's plenty he can accomplish. For many he can be that sorely lacking voice on Gaza. Locally he's not even the MP yet. He's already secured the reopening of the open-air market here in Rochdale. On the verge of securing Primark here in 200 days I think he can save the football club which is on the brink of liquidation at the moment. There's so much that can be done. There's so much to do so we'll hit the ground. Of course he can be the voice of forgiveness. Of course he could be the voice. I know only the people of Rochdale but throughout the UK who want to see an end to this massacre in Gaza he can go into this national parliament to be that voice. Is that right? That will be important to the people here. Absolutely. Will he take on Keir Starlet? Turnell. Will he take on Keir Starlet? Undoubtedly. Look his first Prime Minister's question I think we'll start with as I was saying Mr Speaker. Oh that's nice. How many years ago? Yeah indeed. But yeah he'll use his platform wisely. He was really interrupted for seven years. He was yeah but he'll use his platform wisely. He'll use it well and God willing that's why he'll be re-elected come the general. Right. You know the date of that already? I don't I'm afraid. You're guessing it's 200 years. It's up to it. Can't be longer than that. Yeah. That's five years is over. Yeah. Is that right? So Truss and Suneck together. And Johnson. And Johnson. Of course. Three to fill what five years. Okay. Tell me about it. I'm talking about Johnson already. I know. Do you know anything about Andrew Feinstein? Is he going to be challenging? Is he going to be challenging Kerstarma? Yeah I've been in touch with Andrew. Andrew will be challenging Kerstarma as an independent and I think George's win here tonight will spark a flame of independence across the country. I think there'll be hundreds standing in various seats that really could end up holding the balance of power. Oh yeah tell us more about the workers party. You're running in 55 constituencies now but counting. And counting yes. Well look I'm an independent councillor in southwest London ordinarily myself so I'm not best place to Adam Brayton the workers party but the party will explode in a good way unlike Labour's campaign that imploded we will explode onto the British political scene and I think that's something that the people of Rochdale should be proud of facilitating. This is where George got Adam Brayton. That's right. When he interviewed me last week about the song he is never remarking about it. I think that James got it from him actually. There was a tradition in the Labour Party when it was a Labour Party of Tony Ben, Eric Heffer, great orators. Of course. People who are inspiring to work there. Is there anybody else besides George now that you could think of? Well perhaps Andrew. I'll be I'll be hard pressed. I'll be hard pressed. He's going to bring that tradition back. He certainly will undoubtedly. Don't you think Andrew will bring it back as well? He's quite a good orator. Yeah if he gets in he's got a terrific CV against Stammer. It'll be a challenge. This was a challenge. So you know let's prove George's worth and maybe others will follow. How has the mainstream media freed George and reported on him in this case? Well it's remarkable how different they treat you once they think you're going to win. So let's see George doesn't often get a fair crack of the whip but he's starting to. So I think we're in for a good night. I thank you both. I'm happy to speak to you again if you'll forgive me. I'm being beckoned by colleagues but I'm really grateful. So finally you think there's hope for the workers of Britain now? Absolutely. Undoubtedly. And it started here in Rochdale tonight. Thank you for my... It started before historically as well didn't it? Co-operative movement was born here. Isn't it a wonderful synergy 200 years on? Revival. Rochdale revival. Yes. Thank you very much James. Pleasure. All the best. Thank you. Thank you.