George Galloway, who claims Iran doesn’t execute gays, launches London mayoral bid
George Galloway, who has in the past claimed Iran doesn’t execute gay people, has officially launched his bid to become Mayor of London.
Mr Galloway, who is a controversial political figure on a number of issues including the Middle East, last month lost his Bradford West seat to Labour’s Naz Shah.
Announcing his bid today, Mr Galloway said dealing with London’s housing crisis would be his “number one priority”.
Going on, he pledged to “build a city that benefits everyone, not just those dripping in gold”.
He vowed to use the powers of compulsory purchase orders to seize back homes left unattended for over a year without “proper excuse”.
“House prices and backbreaking rents are driving people further and further to the edge of London, literally and metaphorically,” he said at the Ethical Society in Holborn.
Mr Galloway has previously insisted that homosexuals are not executed in Iran – which is one of the most homophobic countries in the world.
The politician insisted in 2008, after reports that an asylum seeker’s boyfriend had been executed: “All the papers seem to imply that you get executed in Iran for being gay. That’s not true.
“This is being used as part of the on-going propaganda against Iran.”
He claimed that executed gay men were actually killed for “committing sex crimes against young men”.
In 2006, when he was MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Mr Galloway told PinkNews he had an “absolutely impeccable record in parliament” on gay rights despite not being present for the vote on civil partnerships. He backed same-sex marriage in 2013.
The Iranian penal code lists sodomy as a crime for which both partners can be punished by death.
Because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in closed sessions, it is impossible to know how many people have been executed for same-sex conduct.
Two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, were hung for homosexual acts in 2005, though the country claims they were actually guilty of rape.
