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From The Mail on Sunday...

Headline: Chantelle thinks that Dundee’s in Wales. It’s shocking that our education system is failing so miserably


In a scorching interview, George Galloway on his housemates, his critics and the ‘excruciating boredom’ of Big Brother

By Ian Gallagher and Louisa Pritchard


BY HER own admission, she is a dizzy Essex blonde who seems to like nothing better than applying, and talking about, lip gloss. Chantelle Houghton, Celebrity Big Brother winner, would be the first to admit there are sizeable gaps in her learning. Not that she cares much now she’s famous.

But it seems to trouble her former housemate, George Galloway MP. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday he delivered his verdict on her victory yesterday.

‘ I think she is what she seems and that is obviously appealing up to a point, though slightly shocking that our education system is failing so,’ he said. He was referring to the previously unknown 22-year-old’s stunning gaffes on the reality TV show – she asked what a gynaecologist does and suggested Dundee was in South Wales.

‘Living in Britain in 2006, that’s surely extraordinary,’ said Galloway. ‘ A number of people thought maybe it was an act. I think the truth is more prosaic. I think she’s 22 going on 15.’ Which doesn’t say an awful lot for 15-year- olds. He believes Chantelle was easily led by fellow Essex model Jodie Marsh. ‘ I said to her one night, “ You don’t want to make Jodie your role model. At the moment, the nation loves you. They won’t love you if you start taking your clothes off and talking dirty like Jodie does.” ’

Some might say cat-impersonating, leotard- wearing Galloway himself may have benefited from some advice while on the show.

As he conceded in an uncharacteristic moment of humility, his behaviour was at times ‘ ludicrous’. ‘ Looking back, I can’t believe I got so upset at having my rights taken away from me in the nominations.

‘ I forgive anyone who cursed me and I hope anyone I cursed forgives me. At the end of the day, it was only a game.’

After his historic General Election victory and barnstorming Senate committee performance, Galloway doubtless thought himself unstoppable, and a spell in the Big Brother house a walk in the park.

Certainly, his bewilderment at the unremittingly hostile newspaper coverage was genuine. After his eviction from the Big Brother house on Wednesday, the first person he spoke to after presenter Davina McCall was his faithful agent, Ron McKay. Was it really as bad as Davina had hinted?

‘ It’s been ****ing grim,’ came the brutal reply. Indeed it had.

‘ George was shell- shocked when I outlined what had happened when he was inside the house,’ said Mr McKay later. ‘ But his interview with Davina went extremely well, which is something.’

The next 72 hours would follow a similar pattern. Every little scrap of cheer was seized upon by Galloway and his aides with, at times, disproportionate enthusiasm. ‘ But when you are down,’ he said, ‘the only way is up.’

Reflecting on his treatment, he said: ‘ I’m still surprised at a moment when one Lib-Dem politician after another appears to be tumbling out of the closet that me doing a funny act for charity on TV got quite so much coverage. The response I’ve had from the public does not match the headlines.’

And as much as his critics won’t like to hear it, he has got a point. Since his eviction he has enjoyed a largely favourable response from people he has met in the street.

Nevertheless it had been a bumpy ride. Consider this exchange which took place at his surgery at the Respect Party offices in Bethnal Green on Friday afternoon.

‘ That man,’ beamed the MP, gesturing with his Monte Cristo cigar towards 21- year- old furniture designer Arfatur Rahman, ‘ came in here to get my autograph.’

‘ Yes, I was passing by and I thought I’d come in and try to get it,’ confirmed Arfatur. ‘ He is a good guy and, well, a celebrity, and I do like to collect autographs.’

Perhaps he had other big names in his collection? ‘ Oh yes. The cast of London’s Burning – they film it round here.’

Things did begin to brighten after this, however. Trickling into the offices were constituents who wanted their pictures taken with Galloway, those who disagreed with his Big Brother appearance but still thought him a good MP, those who simply wanted to wish him well, and two mothers who wanted him to kiss their babies. ‘ There is nothing like the smell of babies and no politician ever turns down an opportunity to kiss them,’ he declared.

First in the queue, however, had been an Asian man seeking to engage his MP in tricky debate about Crossrail. ( Galloway had missed the Commons debate on the issue due to his incarceration.)

Galloway eyed him suspiciously. He then asked for his name and address and wrote them down.

‘ You’re from The Sunday Times,’ he barked.

‘ I’m still a constituent.’

‘ Get out.’

After that little hiccup, Galloway was on a roll. He shook hands, hugged friends old and new, delivered ready quips, whispered assurances and promises in grateful ears. He spread the charm thickly.

‘ I’m happy to be back. This is what it’s all about,’ he said. At last he could allow himself a real purr of satisfaction.

The 51- year- old said: ‘ I had three goals – to raise money for a Palestine charity, to employ two new members of staff in my constituency and to reach a wider audience. I wanted to show a public that might only have heard of me as Mr Angry on demonstrations that I can sing and laugh and make people laugh.

‘Only time will tell if I achieved that. If you believe the newspapers, then not. If you believe the anecdotal evidence, then I did.’

While Galloway claims not to regret his time on the programme, he does admit to feeling ‘ angered’ by the show’s producers. He was approached last year and met with the show’s boss Peter Bazalgette. He promised Galloway he could talk about politics on the show. After initially offering £75,000 as an appearance fee, Galloway was given double that. He said: ‘ They said it would be an opportunity for me to project my point of view on the war. I assumed things I was saying were appearing.

‘ Instead I found out I was “ bleeped” out. Some of it was inexplicable. I was discussing with Faria [ Alam] the way Islam is misrepresented in the Press and it was censored.

‘Another time I was recalling an anecdote about Enoch Powell who told me, “Never enter the chamber without two verbal hand grenades” and that was cut out. He’s now written out of history as a racist madman but there was more to Powell than that.

‘ I wouldn’t have gone on the show if they had said I would be bleeped out every time I talked about politics. There was clear censorship and I’m angry about that.’ He said he had had butterflies the night before entering the house. ‘I wasn’t nervous before the Senate but this was unchartered territory.

‘The first thing I saw were three exotic- looking dark women. It turned out only one of them was naturally tanned and that was Traci [ Bingham]. Jodie was unnaturally tanned and the third was Pete [Burns]. I’d never heard of Dead Or Alive – I think they were popular around the time of the miners’ strike, so I was otherwise occupied.’ He describes the boredom in the house as ‘ excruciating’. ‘ It’s virtually impossible for anyone to really understand unless they have been there. Each day is virtually identical and it has the desired effect – it means everyone is increasingly introspective, thinking no more about the outside.

‘You end up doing little else but talking about each other. I’m not ashamed of anything I said and I meant everything I said. However, I do think that all of us got things out of proportion.

‘By the end of the stay the house was beginning to smell – the air conditioning was smelling. One minute the house is too cold, the next too hot. It’s too bright or too dark – that’s Big Brother controlling everything.

‘Not being able to read anything was the hardest thing. You can only read the back of a Fruit ’ n Fibre packet so many times.

‘Towards the end I was given the Communist Manifesto. I had read it many times before, of course, but devoured it like a starving man devours a fine meal.

‘Another thing that surprised me was that very few, if any, of the other housemates were aware of the George Orwell book 1984. I alluded to it many times but no one picked up on it.’ He has, unsurprisingly, strong opinions on his fellow housemates. ‘ My first impression was that it was a very uninteresting group of people. That turned out to be completely wrong.’ He has conflicting views on Michael Barrymore. ‘ I was touched by his emotions and immediately formed a positive view about him. He’s been monstrously ill-treated and should be able to work like any other artist. Yet that which touched me began to be wearing.

‘He was candid enough to say, “I did nothing wrong except for being stupid.” He didn’t spell it out in so many words or mention Stuart [ Lubbock] by name but I presumed he meant running away.’

Their friendship quickly soured, culminating in a screaming row. Galloway said: ‘ I realised fairly quickly that there’s something wrong about a man who is always performing. He’s an act more than he is a man.

‘He intervenes before people can tell a story. I think he’s got obsessive compulsive disorder. He needs to be centre stage. I doubt if I saw much of the real man.’ He is also upset at boyband singer Preston. ‘ I’m not sure we have seen the real Preston. He is posing as a mockney. I’m not sure how typical of a young generation that is.’

The one person more hated than Galloway in the house was the caustic Pete Burns.

Galloway said: ‘ He’s a brilliant man but he is often unforgivably cruel. He spares no one, with the exception of me, perhaps. The things he says to Chantelle are breathtaking. The next minute he’s helping her with her make-up.

‘ I will be seeing him again after the show. I think he’s close to genius.’

Galloway, who returned to his constituency on Friday, was keen not to offend his Muslim supporters. He said: ‘ I knew we were all going to be in one room so I took an eye patch so I wouldn’t have to gaze upon any sin.’

It’s no surprise then that he developed a quick dislike for Jodie Marsh.

‘ When people were threatening to show each other their sex organs, that was a problem because I couldn’t be in the room with that.

‘It was mainly Jodie – she talked about if she had a woman what she would do with her.

‘ I certainly don’t think I was bullying her. I had only one strong exchange with her – that doesn’t count as bullying where I come from.

‘I considered her about the most primitive woman I’ve ever met. I found no redeeming qualities about her. I knew she wasn’t stupid and in a way that kind of makes it worse.’

Footage of the MP trying to shadow-box while Dennis Rodman ran on the treadmill is another enduring image from the show.

The basketball star was a favourite of Galloway’s. He said: ‘I know he was superfit and me and Maggot were far from fit. He didn’t want to take on the role as trainer – after all, he’s an international sporting star. He would stroll over and surreptitiously look at our heart monitors or our inclines and say things like “take it easy there” then wander off again. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.’

Despite the arguments, he said: ‘ I feel fondness for all of the housemates. I’ve realised not only do I not hate any of them, I don’t dislike them either. Although in the house there were moments when I disliked them intensely.’

and...

Headline: Still Gorgeous... at least his new girlfriend (16 years younger) thinks so

HE denied flirting with Rula Lenska on Big Brother. And here’s the reason why – George Galloway’s girlfriend,



Rima Husseini, who at 35 is 16 years his junior.

The attractive brunette worked for Galloway in his East London constituency. She lives with her sister Mira in West London while Galloway lives in his constituency.

Rima, who is of Lebanese descent, has spent much of the past three weeks watching hours of live Big Brother footage and taking notes of the MP’s conversations.

She alerted members of his Respect Party that Galloway’s political conversations were being ‘ bleeped out’ by producers.

Rima was with Galloway’s daughter Lucy and agent Ron McKay at Elstree when the MP was evicted from the house on Wednesday evening. She also went with him to the final eviction show on Friday night.

The couple were first linked in June 2004 after they were seen holding hands at a luncheon. They were later photographed at the London premiere of Michael Moore’s controversial film Fahrenheit 9/ 11.

At the time, Galloway was still with his wife Aminey Abu- Zayyad. The couple, who were married for five years, are divorcing.

From The Mail on Sunday.