TALK of administering “a bloody nose” to one’s political opponents is not the kind of language expected from the wife of the Prime Minister. But Cherie Blair has urged loyal Labour supporters to do just that to George Galloway, one of her husband’s fiercest critics over the war in Iraq.

Mrs Blair appeared to lose her cool while addressing an audience of 100 party members at a £25-per-head fundraising reception for Oona King, defending Bethnal Green & Bow for Labour.

It was supposed to be a private affair. Not quite dinner for two at Granita, but a pep talk for the activists facing one of the toughest constituency battles of the election campaign.

Ticket holders were informed of the venue just a few hours before they were due to arrive on Monday and reporters were told it could not be disclosed “for security reasons”.

Mrs Blair’s security detail eyed everyone suspiciously on the door. A second platoon of expressionless men with that unnerving habit of talking to their cufflinks was stationed inside the restaurant.

The Times inveigled its way into Zeera, a chic East London Indian eaterie patronised recently by the International Olympic Committee, and saw Mrs Blair introduced as the “superstar” guest. Grinning from ear to ear, Mrs Blair leapt on to a tiny platform.

“I’m sure his mother loves him,” she said of Mr Galloway, who has decamped from Glasgow to challenge Ms King in Bethnal Green & Bow. “But give George Galloway a bloody nose,” continued the eminent barrister, judge and mother of four, her voice rising. “Make Oona’s majority even bigger this time round.”

Mr Galloway, hearing of Mrs Blair’s antics as he canvassed on Brick Lane, could not resist a smirk. “Rather colourful language for a High Court judge, but I think she might be proved wrong,” he said.

Just a few days into the election campaign proper and Bethnal Green & Bow is shaping up to be the most poisonous contest in the country.

Ms King had eggs thrown at her at the weekend and both candidates have been busy hurling accusations of fraud, corruption, racism, defamation and sexual impropriety at one another.

This week, according to Mr Galloway, Ms King has been forced to make a legal apology and pay damages for the second time after alleging sexual misconduct by Mr Galloway. Ms King’s office declined to comment on this claim. The former Labour maverick says that all the damages he receives are being donated to charities.

Mr Galloway is demanding that Ms King withdraw allegations that his supporters are telling voters in the constituency, which has a 50 per cent Muslim electorate, not to vote for her because she is Jewish. “It is an utterly reprehensible allegation without a scintilla of fact to back it up,” Mr Galloway said. He claimed that his supporters included founders of the Anti-Nazi League and had been fighting fascism for decades.

Talk of fascism never seems far away in this seat. Introducing the singer Billy Bragg at an Oona King benefit gig last month, Graham Taylor, the local Labour chairman, told members that it was not the first time the East End had been threatened by “a moustachioed demagogue”.

The remark was a reference to the Battle of Cable Street in the 1930s when the Left stopped Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts marching through the East End.

Ms King defended her record on the Iraq war at the weekend and rounded on Mr Galloway over his visits to Baghdad during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

She said: “What makes me sick is that when I come across someone who is guilty of genocide I do not get on a plane and grovel at his feet.”

His recent past does not, however, seem to be harming Mr Galloway as he is received with hugs, kisses and greetings of “Assalaamu alaikum”.

A R Ayubali says that he will vote for Mr Galloway because “he talks the truth while Mr Blair lied about Iraq”. Mr Galloway says that it is typical of the response he has received from the Muslim community.

Labour is worried and Mrs Blair is just the latest big gun — after Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Charles Clarke — to appear with Ms King. In her speech Mrs Blair went on to attack the media because they could not be relied on to “deliver the party’s message”. She said: “I read a ridiculous article in The Times (it actually appeared in The Guardian) by Max Hastings, a ridiculous man anyway. It said that no government should have more than two terms. Let me assure you, Labour hasn ’t run out of steam.”

The Prime Minister’s wife autographed books, bottles and boxes of chocolate to be auctioned for the King campaign. But as Ms King was doing her stint as auctioneer she fell off the platform. She will be hoping that her tumble is not an omen for the election.

• George Galloway’s Respect party called for the suspension of postal voting in the East End and accused Labour of “suspicious” electoral practices. Respect consulted lawyers yesterday after Ms King wrote to constituents enclosing a postal ballot application form to be returned free of charge to her office. Mr Galloway said that it could be “a vital precursor to illegality”. Labour said that it was acting legally and was concerned with improving turnout.

BETHNAL GREEN & BOW

MP: Oona King since 1997

2001 result:
Labour 19,380
Conservative 9,323
Liberal Democrat 5,946
majority 10,057

OTHER CANDIDATES
George Galloway (Respect)
Syed Dulu (Liberal Democrat)
Shahagir Faruk (Conservative)
John Foster (Green)

49.8 per cent of population is from a non-white ethnic group. Bangladeshis are largest minority group; others include Pakistanis, West Indians and Somalis

Oona King lives with her Italian husband in Mile End. Her father is an African- American from Georgia. Her mother is Jewish

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone