- The Observer,
- Sunday October 5 2003
David Moxham has been employed by Galloway as his assistant for more than a decade, but will take up a new position with the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) tomorrow. Labour's National Executive Committee is to decide whether to expel the MP on 22 October.
The Glasgow Kelvin representative was suspended in May pending internal investigations into complaints about remarks he made on Arab television. Galloway described Tony Blair and US President George Bush as 'wolves' for attacking Iraq.
But the STUC has confirmed that Moxham would be working for them and not Galloway by the time the hearing takes place. Speaking to The Observer yesterday, STUC general secretary Bill Spiers said: 'David is joining us as a research assistant.'
Spiers, a long-time friend of Galloway, insisted that his new employee merely wished a change of direction. 'This has nothing to do with the situation regarding George. David simply decided for his own reasons to apply for one of these new jobs when they were advertised a few months ago.'
Members of the Kelvin Constituency Labour Party said the assistant's departure would be a great loss to Galloway. Moxham has supported the high-profile MP through numerous crises.
Earlier this year, amid rumours that Galloway was preparing to fight the next election as an independent should he be suspended, Moxham even warned the party hierarchy against making any rash moves. 'If George is removed by foul means, that would be a problem,' he said. 'We're not having a Blairite candidate imposed upon us.'
But, as Galloway's assistant, Moxham earned a reputation as a skilled campaigner and political operator. Representatives of more moderate constituencies were so impressed with his campaign literature they quietly asked him to lend a hand with their material.
As well as the Labour Party hearings, Galloway is embroiled in legal actions against the Daily Telegraph and Christian Science Monitor newspapers. He issued libel proceedings against both after they claimed that he was in the pay of Saddam's regime.
Meanwhile, the charities watchdog has begun an investigation into an appeal fund set up by Galloway to pay for an Iraqi child's hospital treatment. Mariam Hamza was flown to the UK for treatment for leukaemia following fundraising efforts by the MP. In April, a member of the public complained to the Charity Commission that money donated to the appeal was used to pay for Galloway's travel expenses.
It has been a torrid few months for the man who once made regular trips to Baghdad in a bid to end Western sanctions on Iraq.
A first draft of his memoirs was stolen by burglars from his holiday home in Portugal in July. The MP arrived at his Algarve home to find his computer, desk and chair missing. Galloway described it as no 'ordinary crime'.
Last week he again courted controversy by comparing the Labour Party annual conference to a Nazi party rally.
He said: 'It was like a Nuremberg rally, and in fact the leader's speech had a lot of the leader principle - the Führer principle - about it.'
Asked if he was equating Blair with Adolf Hitler, he said: 'No, but I'm equating the Labour Party conference with a Ceausescu-ish desire to suppress any sign of political life and to subjugate the party and its democracy to a kind of follow-the-leader idea.'
