Galloway speaks by video after Canada ban

George Galloway has been forced to address an audience in Toronto, Canada by video message after a Canadian judge upheld a decision to ban the Respect MP from entering the country on a planned speaking tour.

The colourful politician, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 following his harsh criticism of the Iraq war, stands accused of providing financial support to the Palestinian group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation in Canada and is banned.

Speaking from a New York studio on Monday night, Galloway vehemently denied the charge and branded federal judge Luc Martineau’s decision as "idiotic". "I am not a supporter of Hamas but I am a supporter of democracy," he said.

Galloway claims that he merely donated aid to the people of Gaza but the judge ruled that the politician lacked "a proper factual record and the benefit of full legal argument" to overrule the Canadian government's decision.

This is not the first time that Galloway has been considered a threat to national security. The disgraced MP – who starred in Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 where he infamously pretended to be a purring kitten – was detained in Egypt in the same year on grounds of national security as he tried to attend the "mock trial" of Tony Blair and George W Bush. He also found himself in the firing line in 2005 when his organisation was accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in UN oil-for-food allocations from the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Never one to be defeated, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, in the East End of London, is expected to press ahead with his planned addresses to audiences in Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa – all via video link. ·