GEORGE GALLOWAY, who has been expelled from the Labour party for his anti-war rhetoric, has compared the presence of British and American forces in Iraq with the Nazi occupation of France during the second world war.

In his most inflammatory comments to date, the MP for Glasgow Kelvin said that terrorist attacks on coalition forces could be equated with the resistance movements in Nazi- occupied France and Norway.

He said the interim government in Baghdad was no different to Vichy rule in France and accused Iraqis working with the British and Americans of being “collaborators”.

Galloway had his membership of the Labour party withdrawn last month after being accused of inciting British troops to disobey orders and encouraging other Arab nations to help to defend Iraq.

He intends to start a new hard-left political party to challenge Labour in elections to the European parliament and London assembly next June. Galloway is also writing a book on Iraq which he promises will prove an acute embarrassment to Tony Blair and senior ministers. Many observers believe that Galloway will use the book to settle scores with senior Labour figures.

To date, 20 British servicemen have died in Iraq since the end of the war. Last week 19 Italian soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing in al-Nasiriyah, southern Iraq.

A further four people were killed by a suicide bomber who drove a truck into the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Kirkuk.

Yesterday at least 15 people were killed in car bomb attacks on police stations in the towns of Khan Bani Saad and Baquba, north of Baghdad. The area is known as a stronghold for supporters of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

In an interview with Galloway, published in today’s Sunday Times, he said the Iraqis had “a legal and moral right to resist foreign occupiers of their country”, and said he believed the resistance was being co- ordinated by Saddam Hussein.

Making the comparison with the second world war, he said: “When the French resistance were knocking hell out of the German occupation in Paris, they were not regarded as anything other than resistance fighters — except by the Germans and the collaborators, who called them terrorists. Iraq is in exactly the same situation.

“The French when occupied could support the Vichy collaborators or they could stay out of it altogether — which a large number of them did. Or they could join the resistance. They had to make that choice. And the Iraqis are making that same choice. Some are collaborating. Many are staying as far away from the situation as they can, and 50,000 people — I am relying here on the CIA’s report — have joined the resistance. And they enjoy widespread support among the Iraqi population.”

His comments were condemned by his former colleagues in the Labour party who said they were “beneath contempt”.

“To compare the thugs who have killed British troops, United Nations staff and innocent Muslims in Iraq with the French resistance is disgusting,” said a spokesman.

“George has given up any meagre claim he had to speak for anyone other than himself and a tiny lunatic fringe.”

Galloway had been a Labour MP since 1987 and has declared his intention to carry on in the Commons as an independent. He has a long history of engagement with the Saddam regime and during the Iraqi conflict he gained international attention by describing President George W Bush and Blair as “wolves”.

He was one of the leaders of the anti-war demonstration on Thursday that attracted more than 100,000 protesters onto the streets of London to oppose the state visit to Britain of Bush.

The MP’s new party goes under the name of the Unity Coalition but it is likely to have a name change, possibly to Respect. It will stand on a platform of anti-war, environmentalist and anti-capitalist policies, as well as opposition to British entry to the euro and the new European constitution.

Domestically it will also oppose the use of private finance in public sector projects and will campaign for the repeal of trade union legislation. Galloway expects to be one of the new party’s Euro MPs from next June, while remaining an MP.

This week he expects to receive a cheque for almost £100,000 from The Christian Science Monitor over a story it published alleging that Galloway received millions of pounds from Saddam’s regime. The documents on which the story was based were later revealed to be forgeries. He has denied receiving any funds from Saddam.

He is still pursing The Daily Telegraph over similar allegations. Galloway used his Sunday Times interview to gloat over the financial difficulties of Lord Black, the Telegraph proprietor.

“The editor who published the story has gone. The owner who published the story has gone, and it is he who has been revealed to have been taking payments — in his case £19m worth of payments — not from Saddam Hussein, it’s true, but from his own company and his own shareholders,” he said.

Galloway’s new party has done a deal with Tommy Sheridan’s Scottish Socialist party to avoid splitting the left-wing vote in next year’s European parliament elections. The new party will not put forward candidates north of the border.

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