| George Galloway Respect | 18,341 | 55.9% (+52.8%) |
| Imran Hussein Labour | 8,201 | 25.0% (-20.3%) |
| Jackie Whiteley Conservatives | 2,746 | 8.4% (-22.7%) |
| Jeanette Sunderland Lib Dems | 1,505 | 4.6% (-7.1%) |
| Sonja McNally UKIP | 1,085 | 3.3% (+1.3%) |
| Dawud Islam Green | 481 | 1.5% (-0.8%) |
| Neil Craig Democratic Nationalists | 344 | 1.0% (-0.1%) |
| Howling Laud Hope Monster Raving Loony | 111 | 0.3% |
GEORGE GALLOWAY scored a sensational triumph for Respect in the Bradford West by-election last night after thrashing Labour following a swing of almost 37%.
Mr Galloway won the seat with a thumping 56% of the vote, finishing well ahead of the Labour candidate Imran Hussein, who polled just 25%.
The Conservatives' Jackie Whiteley trailed in third after their vote collapsed to 8.4% - while their coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, lost another by-election deposit in fourth.
The main news, though, surrounded Mr Galloway's extraordinary victory in what was previously a safe Labour seat.
Mr Galloway, who was himself a Labour MP in Glasgow between 1987 and 2003, called it the "most sensational result in British by-election history".
Certainly, it must be said that the drama overnight in West Yorkshire ranked alongside other huge political shocks in Orpington, Crosby, and Glasgow East.
Labour had held Bradford West since 1974, except for a short period between 1981 and 1983 when then-MP Edward Lyons defected to the newly-formed Social Democratic Party.
Even in Labour's disastrous 1983 general election result under Michael Foot, the party still managed to regain the seat from the SDP.
And that fact puts into some context exactly how embarrassing this result actually is for Opposition leader Ed Miliband.
It was not meant to be this way, of course - and certainly not expected to be this way.
Labour was odds-on to win this by-election after pulling ahead into double-digit leads in the national polls following perhaps the roughest week yet for the coalition.
The government's troubles began last Wednesday when George Osborne announced in his third Budget that he was freezing age-related allowances while cutting the highest rate of tax from 50p to 45p.
Almost immediately, Mr Osborne's move became dubbed the "granny tax" and he could not even rely on support from traditionally Tory newspapers.
The Sun claimed that the Chancellor had "clobbered the masses of hard-grafting Brits in a budget that boosted super-earners" while the Daily Telegraph printed "granny tax" in its massive front-page headline.
Perhaps the worst news, though, came from the Daily Mail - "Osborne picks the pockets of pensioners" was its verdict - and it was no surprise to see Conservative support among the over-60s drop in polls after that barrage of headlines.
The perception that the Conservative party is only there to benefit the rich was given further credence when Prime Minister David Cameron then got caught up in a cash-for-access scandal.
Co-treasurer Peter Cruddas resigned from his post in the party after secret filming by the Sunday Times showed him offering access to the PM for a donation of £250,000 a year.
And, subsequently, Mr Cameron was forced into publishing the names of all the donors who had dined with him privately in Downing Street.
The PM soon got himself in more bother when another element of taxation in the Budget, the seemingly innocuous imposition of VAT on hot pasties, reared its ugly head.
Asked when he had last eaten a pasty himself, Mr Cameron recalled: "I think the last one I bought was from the West Cornwall Pasty Company.
"I seem to remember I was in Leeds station at the time and the choice was whether to have one of their small ones or large ones, and I have a feeling I opted for the large one and very good it was too."
The only problem with this anecdote was that the West Cornwall Pasty Company had shut its store in Leeds station... five years ago.
Finally, just to prove that bad thing do not necessarily come in just three doses, a Minister went distinctly off-message, sparking a mass fuel panic which is still an ongoing concern.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude probably thought he was being helpful when he suggested that motorists fill jerry cans with petrol and store them in the garage following the Unite union's vote among hauliers to strike.
Instead, Mr Maude's words have had the inevitable effect of drivers bleeding service stations dry amid record prices, despite the fact that there was no sign of actual strike action on the horizon.
Unite would have to give seven days' notice of any withdrawal of labour and the union has now confirmed it will continue with its negotiations over the Easter weekend.
Nevertheless, the Daily Mail brilliantly summed up the situation with its headline this morning: "Pandemonium at the pumps".
All in all, then, a pretty terrible 10 days for the government. But, with a by-election defeat like this, Labour shows no signs of providing effective opposition under Mr Miliband.
Labourlist, a blog which is independent from the central party, wrote in its live report that the result was a "very, very bad one".
Meanwhile, a follower was rather more cutting in their comment below the line. Jon wrote: "You're up against one of the most calamitous governments of recent times in the longest recession since the Great Depression and you've literally been beaten by a man who likes dressing up as a cat."
For readers unsure of the cat reference, Jon was recalling Mr Galloway's infamous appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 while he was MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
In one of the tasks, the Scot pretended to be a cat and licked milk from the cupped hands of fellow contestant, actress Rula Lenska.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Galloway's actions brought him much mockery from the wider public and there were even suggestions that, as a sitting MP, he had brought Parliament into disrepute.
It is a sign, then, of just how bad the options are from the three main parties that the people of Bradford have instead put their trust into the egotistical Respect candidate.
As the member for Bethnal Green and Bow, Mr Galloway had one of the worst attendance rates in the House of Commons, turning up for only one in 20 votes.
And, despite words to the contrary in his victory speech, it is hard to see him being in Bradford for the long run.
If he does cut his losses somewhere down the line, it would be another blow to a West Yorkshire city which is in dire need of some help.
Recently subject to the two-part Channel 4 documentary, Make Bradford British, the area for years has been held up as an example of the failure of different cultural groups to integrate.
And the city took another blow when a report by the Local Data Company claimed that it was the "riskiest city in the UK to invest in retailing" due to its high number of vacant units and charity shops.
Worse still, the public cannot even find respite in following the two main sports teams.
Bradford City FC are sixth-bottom in League Two, and only four points off relegation out of the Football League altogether, having previously played in the Premier League between 1999 and 2001.
Most recently, a mass brawl at the end of their home defeat to Crawley saw five players red-carded, including three from Bradford, with the subsequent FA charge almost sure to result in a substantial fine.
Meanwhile, Bradford Bulls, the rugby league team - again powerhouses at the turn of the millennium - revealed this week that they need £1m just to stay in business.
And so, in light of all of this, it can only be hoped that Mr Galloway is an effective MP and that he did not just win this election to bloody the noses of some former Labour colleagues.
For Mr Miliband, the current poll leads will mean very little this morning. Instead, the results of the May elections now become hugely significant for his chances of survival.
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