Rebel will fight to clear name, having reaped over £250,000 for libel

LABOUR rebel George Galloway has regularly been a thorn in the side of both the Prime Minister and some sections of the media.

He is notoriously good at defending his reputation and, so far, has been successful in about 20 libel cases.

The £55,000-a-year MP has reaped over £250,000 from court proceedings against the media.

He publicly boasted that one such victory against the late Robert Maxwell’s media empire enabled him to buy an open-top Mercedes.

Denying Daily Telegraph allegations that he received £350,000 from the Iraqi regime, he has pledged to “take whatever legal action may be necessary” to clear his name.

In addition to his salary, the Glasgow Kelvin representative in the House of Commons is entitled to over £63,000 for parliamentary office and staff expenses.

He is a director of a media company, Finjan Ltd, but his remuneration from that business is not disclosed.Galloway’s income, however, is also supplemented to the tune of £70,000 per annum by a regular newspaper column for the Mail on Sunday. The latest parliamentary list of interests revealed he is unpaid for a twice-monthly column in The Morning Star.

In 2002, he listed 12 trips overseas, mainly to the Middle East. Accommodation and flights were paid for by friends of Iraq or anti-sanction groups and campaigners including the Great Britain Iraq Society of which Mr Galloway is chairman.

The 48-year-old, nicknamed by the tabloid press as the Member for Baghdad Central, has also acquired a sun-drenched retreat in Portugal. The luxury villa in the Burgau area of the Algarve has been valued locally in the region of £250,000.

Twice-married Mr Galloway now lives with Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, a biologist at Glasgow University.

Through a registered charity, he has raised over £1m for the Marian Appeal, established initially to treat an Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia.