George Galloway: Respect MP accuses Labour candidate Naz Shah of lying about her forced marriage

George Galloway has sensationally claimed that Bradford West Labour candidate Naz Shah, who is set to stand against him in the General Election in May, lied about the details of her forced marriage.

The women’s rights campaigner found herself thrust into the media spotlight in March after she published an emotive personal account of how her early life of extreme poverty and violence inspired her to become an MP.

Among the details she recalled was being sent to Pakistan at the age of 12 to escape her mother’s violent drug-dealing partner, only to be strong-armed into an arranged marriage at the age of 15.

Speaking at the Carlisle Business Centre in Manningham, where prospective parliamentary candidates from Respect, Labour, Conservatives, Ukip, the Lib Dems and the Greens took to the podium to make their case to potential voters, Galloway said to Shah: “The 27 of February was the day you came bottom of the poll with just 13 votes out of almost 220 in the Bradford West Labour Party selection.

“You are a big loser, then, and the kind of way you have embarked on this campaign will make you a big loser again. You have only a passing acquaintance with the truth. You claimed, and gullible journalists believed you, that you were subject to a forced marriage at the age of 15. But you were not 15. You were 16-and-a-half.”

Galloway was halted by the chair of the debate after the room descended into jeers from the crowd.

Galloway later continued: “The issue is, my opponent is a liar. She lied about me, she lied about her age, she slandered this community for her own selfish ends. She played into every stereotype.”

Given a final 20 seconds by the chair to make his plea to constituents, he said: “I have set politics alight in Bradford. That’s why the media are here. We turned Bradford politics upside down, we’ve shaken the complacency of Labour, which is why they hate us so much. They have betrayed the people in Bradford and elsewhere in the country. We are the real Labour party, and that’s why they hate us.”

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)