Saddam claims were ‘like a dagger through Galloway’s heart’

BRITISH MP George Galloway yesterday described allegations that he was in the secret pay of dictator Saddam Hussein as a “deeply wounding dagger through my political heart.”

Giving evidence during his long-awaited libel action against the Daily Telegraph, he said such allegations were “outrageous” and “incredibly damaging.”

A series of articles published in the newspaper in April 2003 - following discovery of documents in Iraq by one of its reporters - “claimed that I had made very substantial secret profits from Saddam Hussein and his regime.”

His High Court action is the highest-profile legal case involving a politician since the epic December 1999 “cash for questions” contest between ex-Tatton MP Neil Hamilton and Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed.

Mr Galloway told Mr Justice Eady, who is trying the five-day contested case without a jury: “The allegations made by the Telegraph are very serious and extremely damaging. The Telegraph does not say that they are true.”

The 50-year-old Glasgow MP insisted he was a vociferous opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Mr Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party in October last year, said: “As a direct result of the Telegraph’s allegations, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards commenced an investigation against me which is currently in limbo pending the outcome of this action.”

The MP denied that he had ever sought or received payment from Saddam Hussein or his regime.

The newspaper’s defence involves consideration by the court of whether it was responsible journalism and in the public interest for it to publish the contents of documents on which their story was based.

Cross-examined by the Telegraph’s QC James Price, the leader of the anti-war Respect coalition said that although the authenticity of the documents was not an issue to be decided by the courts, it was his belief that they “may be forged, may be doctored, but are in any case wrong and false.”