Mapped: All the by-elections that have taken place this parliament

The Rochdale contest was the latest in a string of recent by-elections triggered by deaths, resignations and MPs being booted out of their constituencies for bad behaviour

George Galloway has won the Rochdale by-election following a chaotic campaign dominated by the war in Gaza.

The former Labour politician and Celebrity Big Brother contestant took 12,335 votes and becomes the only MP for the Workers Party of Britain. The party’s number 1 pledge is to “end imperialist wars” and withdraw from Nato.

The campaign for the Greater Manchester constituency was marred by chaos and ugly scenes with candidates receiving death threats and Labour withdrawing support for its candidate in the race over comments he made on the Israel-Hamas war.

A voter leaves a polling station in Rochdale where the by-election has been marred with controversary (Getty Images)

The Rochdale vote was the latest in a string of recent by-elections triggered by deaths, resignations and MPs losing their constituencies for bad behaviour.

Since the start of the current parliament in December 2019, there has been a total of 22 by-elections across the UK - two of which have taken place in Scotland with the remainder being held in England.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have, at the expense of the Conservatives, gained seven and four seats respectively.

Keir Starmer’s party has held five of its seats and lost one to Mr Galloway, while the Tories have managed to hold one, scraping a narrow victory - 495 votes - in Uxbridge & South Ruislip, a contest that was dominated by the expansion of Ulez in outer London.

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The SNP held on in the one seat it was defending in Airdrie and Shotts, with the party’s candidate Anum Qaisar winning comfortably with a majority of 8,779.

Labour was hoping for its sixth consecutive by-election victory in Rochdale but the party’s plans were damaged when candidate Azhar Ali was recorded saying that Israel had “allowed” Hamas’s 7 October terror attack to take place.

Although Mr Ali’s name still appeared as a Labour candidate on the ballot, the party withdrew its support and did not campaign in the seat.

Labour will now choose another candidate before the next general election, which must take place by 28 January 2025.

Simon Danczuk (Reform UK), Azhar Ali (former Labour) and George Galloway (Workers Party) were among the candidates in the Rochdale by-election (PA / Getty)

With potentially 11 months to go before voters head to the polls for a national vote, the Rochdale by-election might not be the last.

With Labour commanding a double-digit lead in the polls, 58 Conservative MPs have so far announced they will stand down before the election and some party insiders predict the number could rise to “well over 100”, according to The Sunday Times.

Alok Sharma, the former business secretary and Cop26 president, Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, Dominic Raab, the ex-justice secretary and Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, are among the other big-name Tories who are stepping down at the next election.

Mr Sharma and Mr Raab would have been defending majorities of fewer than 5,000 votes at the next national poll.