Galloway condemned over online rape comments

Mr Assange is wanted in Sweden to face allegations he denies of sexual assault by two women.

In his weekly online broadcast entitled Good Night with George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bradford West said the women’s claims were “totally unproven” and Mr Assange had been “set up”.

He suggested one of the women involved had claimed she invited Mr Assange back to her flat, had consensual sex with him and then “woke up to him having sex with her again – something which can happen, you know”.

“It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said: ‘Do you mind if I do it again?’ It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning.”

Rape charity Crisis said Mr Galloway’s understanding of rape appeared to be “factually incorrect”. If the woman concerned was asleep when the sexual encounter began, consent could not “reasonably” have been given.

“Mr Galloway’s description of such sexual violence as ‘really bad manners’ is offensive and deeply concerning,” it added.