‘It’s not personal it’s politics’: George Galloway speaks ahead of West Bromwich campaign – with video

By Pete Madeley

To his supporters, George Galloway is the ultimate rascal, an outspoken politician intent on holding those in power to account, no matter how much trouble it gets him into.

To his opponents – and he has many – he’s a reprehensible character, an enemy to Britain who thrives on peddling conspiracy theories and causing division while he is cosying up to repressive and violent regimes.

Others remember him as the old guy who pretended to be a cat during Celebrity Big Brother – an episode which has gone down as one of the most bizarre in television history.

Things are rarely quiet when Mr Galloway is around, and his decision to pick Sandwell as the scene of his latest political showdown ensures there will be serious helpings of sound and fury once the general election campaign starts in earnest.

WATCH: George Galloway interviewed in West Bromwich

The 65-year-old former MP plans to oust Labour’s Tom Watson from the West Bromwich East seat he has held for 18 years, touting himself as the pro-Brexit and pro-Corbyn candidate that Mr Watson is not.

“It’s not personal. I’ve always had very good relations with Tom – and I’ve got the texts to prove it,” he says with a mischievous grin, as we talk in the D’Vine cafe on West Bromwich High Street.

• Tom Watson: People won’t be fooled by Galloway’s act

“It’s a political decision. I’m a strong campaigner for Brexit and he is the wrecker in chief.”

He says his good friend Jeremy Corbyn has been “forced” by Mr Watson into turning Labour into a Remain party, in defiance of a 2017 election manifesto pledge.

“Jeremy is surrounded by a Remainer clique who have their hands around his throat,” Mr Galloway said. “I have known him for 40 years and I know what he really thinks about the European Union.”

He looks back fondly on memories of he and Mr Corbyn sitting up all night in Parliament to block pro-EU legislation. “Jeremy Corbyn knows how bad the EU has been for working class people in Britain,” he adds.

“If it was not for Watson, Corbyn would already be Prime Minister. I thought enough is enough. I’m going to give a labour Brexit argument and see how people respond.”

He says Mr Corbyn has made “a lot of mistakes”, and “could have been better as a leader” by standing up to his opponents within his party. “But I’d give my right arm to put him in Downing Street,” he said.

“Watson and his pals would burst the tyres on Corbyn’s bike to stop him getting there.”

Asked if by attempting to stop a Labour candidate from winning in West Bromwich East he was not hindering Mr Corbyn’s chances of becoming PM, he said: “No, because I’ll be voting for him in Parliament.”

He agrees that his own Brexit position is similar to that of Boris Johnson – who he says he despises – and Nigel Farage, in that he wants a clean break from the EU.

“But that’s where the similarities end,” he tells me. “I’m for the workers. They want Britain to be an offshore bargain basement place with no labour standards.”