Catholic politician detained at London airport under Terrorism Act

George Galloway, former MP for Rochdale and leader of the Workers Party of Britain, has been detained at Gatwick Airport under the Terrorism Act.

Galloway, 71, was stopped by counter-terrorism officers along with his wife, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, before being released. It is understood the couple were returning to the UK from Moscow via Abu Dhabi.

London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed the incident in a statement, saying: “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.”

Galloway has led the Workers Party of Britain since 2019. While socialist and far-left in its economic stance, the party is socially conservative and patriotic. It is opposed to EU membership and gender self-identification, and its representatives have made controversial comments about same-sex relationships.

Before losing his seat in 2024, Galloway was one of the most staunchly pro-life members of Parliament. In a 2005 interview he said, “I have all my life been against abortion and against euthanasia,” and on another occasion, “I believe life begins at conception.”

Galloway is also a practising Catholic. In a 2024 interview with the Daily Telegraph’s Tim Stanley, he said he believes in Jesus “with all my heart”. He spoke of his fondness for the Latin Mass and recalled having discussed it with Pope Francis. Galloway described the beauty of the Latin Mass as “poetry in motion”, said he always fulfils his Sunday obligation, and mentioned that his mother is a daily communicant.

It is not clear why Galloway was detained. However, his associations have long attracted scrutiny from the British state. He was a presenter on the Russian state media outlet RT from 2013 to 2022. In May this year, he travelled to Iran to collect an award named after Ismail Haniyeh, the former political head of the terrorist organisation Hamas. On the same trip, he went to Moscow to attend the Russian Victory Parade.

Commenting on the incident, fellow former MP and practising Catholic Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said, “It is important to defend free speech for people with whom one very strongly disagrees.”

His party released a statement saying the detention showed that “Britain needs to replace those who seek to censor and intimidate us. We need working-class leaders who can chart a new peaceful path of development.”(Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)