The veteran politician and his wife were briefly held at Gatwick Airport under the Terrorism Act
Politician George Galloway has accused UK counter-terrorism officers of interrogating him and his wife about their political views and trying to obtain confidential information. The pair were detained at Gatwick Airport on Saturday after returning from Russia.
The 71-year-old Workers Party of Britain leader says he was questioned for around four hours and his wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwi for about five. They were released without charges after their phones and laptops were confiscated.
In a post on X on Monday, Galloway described the experience as “ugly” and said police put politically loaded questions to both of them. “Why is your fingernail painted in the Palestinian colors? What’s your attitude to the conflict in Gaza? Why do you admire Mr Lavrov? Why are you so friendly to China?” he recalled being asked.
MONOLOGUE: What has Gayatri’s fingernail got to do with terrorism?The inside story from inside the locked room of the Galloways Gatwick arrests, although the police like to call it detention. From the absurd to the ridiculous, but with criminal consequencesFollow #MOATS 486… pic.twitter.com/HWSvwq076f
— The Mother of All Talk Shows with George Galloway (@MoatsTV) September 28, 2025
He suggested the real motive behind their detention was “to gain access to our communications, to confiscate phones, to confiscate laptops, and to enter and burgle and see what they can do with our private communications.”
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that counter-terrorism officers at Gatwick Airport stopped a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s under the Terrorism Act on Saturday, adding that “neither of them were arrested and they were allowed on their way.”
Galloway has rejected the official explanation, saying no evidence of “terrorism” was presented during questioning. He said officers even asked him to provide a password for a phone that was not his.
The politician has announced plans to pursue legal action against the Metropolitan Police, with his lawyer due to address a press conference in Belfast.
A veteran British politician and former RT show host, Galloway was an MP for nearly 30 years. He launched the Workers Party in 2019, and with a social-conservative platform, he won the 2024 Rochdale by-election. Just five months later he lost his seat to Labour in the general election, which he had been a member of for decades before the early 2000s.
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