page_title: Respect Party
section_title: Early electoral campaigns: 2004–05
hierarchical_section_title: Respect Party / History / Early electoral campaigns: 2004–05
caption_attribution_description: Respect Coalition fringe meeting at the European Social Forum in London. Taken by JK the Unwise
context_page_description: The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons and nineteen councillors in local government.
  The Respect Party was established in London by Salma Yaqoob and George Monbiot in 2004. Arising in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it grew out of the Stop the War Coalition and from the start revolved largely around opposition to the United Kingdom's role in the Iraq War. Uniting a range of leftist and anti-war groups, it was unofficially allied to the Muslim Association of Britain and the Socialist Workers Party, a far-left, Marxist group. In 2005, Respect's candidate George Galloway was elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, and the party came second in three other constituencies. Respect made further gains in the 2006 and 2007 local elections, at which point its support peaked. In 2007, a schism emerged in the party between SWP supporters and the Respect Renewal group led by Galloway and Yaqoob; the former group left the party to form the Left List.
context_section_description: Respect fielded candidates for both the 2004 elections for the European Parliament (EP) and for the London Assembly, attempting to present these elections as a referendum on Blair's Labour government. The party claims that this support was achieved primarily as a result of the anti-war protests and by attracting votes from "disillusioned" Labour voters. The party was widely derided in the British media, which viewed Respect as a single-issue party that would soon disappear from British politics.
  Respect polled a quarter of a million votes in the EP election. Its proportion of the national vote was 1.7%, which grew to 5% in London, although it failed to win any seats. The strong showing of the Greens and the UK Independence Party had been part of the reason for this failure to secure a seat. In the London Assembly election, Respect secured 4.5% of the vote, meaning that they did not secure a seat on the Assembly. However, within both the London Borough of Newham and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets—both areas with large Muslim populations—Respect secured the largest number of votes, with over 20% in both. Respect mocked Ken Livingstone's Labour candidacy as the "Blair Mayor Project".
  Respect's first election victory was in the council by-election for the St Dunstan's and Stepney Green ward of Tower Hamlets, where its candidate, Oliur Rahman, secured 31% of the vote. At the Birmingham Hodge Hill and Leicester South by-elections, both held on 15 July 2004, the party gained 6.3% and 12.7% of the vote respectively. At the time, following defections from other parties, Respect had a council seat in Nuneaton and another in Preston.
  The coalition put up candidates in 26 constituencies across England and Wales, just under half of them from the SWP. However, Britain's first past the post electoral system made it difficult for small parties to make gains unless they geographically concentrated their vote. Respect recognised that East London, an area with large numbers of Muslim British Bangladeshis, would be electorally lucrative, particularly as three of the area's four sitting Labour MPs had voted in favour of British participation in the invasion of Iraq. At the 2005 general election Respect fielded candidates in this area: Lindsey German in West Ham, Abdul Khaliq Mian in East Ham, Rahman in Poplar and Canning Town, and Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow.
  Galloway sought to unseat the sitting Labour MP, Oona King, and the ensuing campaign for the seat has been cited as "one of the most acrimonious in recent history". King accused Galloway of sexual impropriety, although was later forced to retract those allegations. She alleged that she had been the victim of antisemitism from Respect supporters after having been pelted with eggs at a Jewish memorial service. She also claimed that Respect canvassers had urged Muslims not to vote for her because she is Jewish. Respect threatened legal action if King repeated the claim.
  Respect won 0.3% of the national vote, with an average of 6.8% of the vote in the constituencies it had contested; 17 of its candidates failed to have their deposits returned. However, Galloway won the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow by a narrow margin of 823 votes. Galloway's surprise victory provided much momentum for his party. His victory represented the first time that a party to the left of Labour had won a seat in the Houses of Parliament since 1951. Respect also did well in several other constituencies, coming second to Labour in both West Ham and East Ham, and also securing second place in Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where Yaqoob had been its candidate, securing 27.5% of the vote.
  Respect made "rapid progress", aided by growing finances and the existing campaign experience of the far left. By the end of 2005, in the London Borough of Newham, two Labour and one Liberal Democrat councillor had defected to Respect. By December 2005, it had an official membership of 5,674. Galloway, however, told Decca Aitkenhead in April 2012 for a Guardian profile that Respect, at its peak, only had about 3–4,000 
caption: Respect fringe meeting at the 2004 European Social Forum
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