IT WAS a political marriage made in heaven for George Galloway MP, but Jane Fonda, the movie star, stood him up at the altar.

Fonda was persuaded by Eve Ensler, her friend and author of The Vagina Monologues, to join Galloway on the platform at two cities on his American book promotion tour, which was due to end last night at a peace rally in Washington.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow was thrilled by the news that such a “big star with a luminous reputation” was lending her name to his anti-Iraq war campaign, but Fonda cancelled at short notice, pleading a hip injury.

A message from the Hollywood actress was read out to disappointed crowds in Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. “Dear friends,” it went, “I’m sorry I can’t be there. I have recently had hip surgery and my doctor has told me I cannot travel for a while.”

Yet Fonda, 67, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, was able to attend a fundraiser nearly 900 miles away in New York last week at the home of the chief executive of Air America, a left-wing radio station, in support of a documentary on the Vietnam war called Sir, No Sir.

“Hanoi Jane”, who gained her nickname during the Vietnam era, had hip replacement surgery in June and told The Sun newspaper last week that the operation was successful.

The British writer Christopher Hitchens, a vocal opponent of Galloway who debated with him in front of a sell-out audience in New York, said Fonda’s no-show, coupled with her appearance at another left-wing event, “could not have been more pointed”.

Hitchens claimed that Fonda had “dumped” Galloway after watching a tape of the debate, in which he accused Galloway of being in thrall to Arab dictators. “I lost him Jane Fonda,” he said. “She bailed out because she couldn’t bear to appear with this scumbag.”

Galloway said he believed that Fonda’s hip problem was genuine. The MP said his American tour had been an “astounding” success and that he had sold 1,000 copies of his book, Mr Galloway Goes to Washington. “It was a disappointing night if I only got two standing ovations,” he said. “It’s obvious there is a big market here in the United States for politicians who oppose George Bush and Tony Blair.”

The 51-year-old MP was lionised by American peace protesters, including Fonda, after he was hauled before a Senate committee investigating oil sales to Iraq and turned the table on his accusers for an alleged “pack of lies” told about the Iraq war.

However, some American opponents of the war have been cautioning fellow leftwingers against adopting the politician as a figurehead. Marc Cooper, a journalist with LA Weekly, urged Galloway to go home.

“Mr Galloway isn’t really opposed to the war in Iraq, he simply supports another side,” Cooper wrote. “He is not our ally, nor our friend. He is a Swamp-thing.”

Greg Palast, another anti-war writer, said that Galloway had given “one helluva performance” in the Senate. “But before we rally around this stand-up guy from Britain, we should ask him a few questions of his own,” he warned. “Are we about standing up for the defenceless — or the cruel and senseless?”

At his meetings the MP has been stalked by left-wing critics, who have handed out leaflets drawing attention to his notorious “salute” to Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and his support for the Iraqi “resistance”.

Americans are now much better informed about the MP, Hitchens said: “He gained friends when he came to Washington and insulted the Senate, but he has definitely lost many of the friends he made.”

Galloway retorted: “I’ve been on the radio morning ’til night and filling halls and selling a large number of books. If that’s people turning against me, roll on.”

The MP was due to join Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, at anti-war rally in Washington last night.

“It’s disgusting,” said Hitchens. “You can’t praise the people who are conducting operations in Iraq and then comfort a mother on the death of her son at their hands.”

Despite earlier promises, Fonda will not be attending Sheehan’s rally either, again citing hip trouble. “Jane Fonda has had some problems with travel and the doctors asked her to cut down on her flights. She is unable to be in Washington,” said Pat Kingsley, her agent.

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