George Galloway gets detained by UK police

(MENAFN) George Galloway was temporarily stopped at Gatwick Airport under the Terrorism Act upon his return from Russia on Saturday, according to his political party.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command intercepted the 71-year-old former MP and his wife. While police confirmed an incident, they did not explicitly identify Galloway as the person involved.

“We can confirm that on Saturday, 27 September counter-terrorism officers at Gatwick Airport stopped a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s under Schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. Neither of them were arrested and they were allowed on their way,” a Met spokesperson said.

The Workers Party of Britain stated on social media that their leader and his wife had been detained, describing it as a “politically motivated intimidation” attempt. The party added that it had received no immediate “information on charges or alleged offences.”

Schedule 3, cited by police, allows border officers to stop, question, and detain incoming individuals to determine whether they have engaged in any form of “hostile activity.”

After Galloway’s release, his party reiterated its allegations, calling the incident an “attempt to intimidate those who seek amity rather than enmity with the rest of the world” on Britain’s behalf. “We were obstructed from providing legal support and the conduct of the affair has been designed to intimidate political opponents of the drive towards war with Russia and China,” the party stated, promising to provide the “full account” of events tomorrow.

A veteran British politician and former RT show host, Galloway served as an MP for nearly 30 years. He founded the Workers Party in 2019, and with its social-conservative platform, won the 2024 Rochdale by-election. Just five months later, he lost the seat to Labour, a party he had long been affiliated with before the early 2000s.

MENAFN28092025000045017281ID1110120921