Inside the chaotic George Galloway Rochdale victory party in a Suzuki car showroom

Driving through an industrial estate to the east of Rochdale town centre, it certainly didn't feel like you were entering the epicentre of a national political storm. The first hint was the scores of TV trucks, with their huge satellite dishes on their roofs, parked outside.

Inside the brightly lit Suzuki showroom, the nation's media was starting to gather. As were supporters of George Galloway, who in the early hours of this morning was elected as the new MP for Rochdale.

The garage on Crawford Street has served as Mr Galloway's campaign base for the duration of this by-election, which became one of the strangest and most tumultuous in recent memory. And it was tonight (Friday) the setting for a party where Mr Galloway came to celebrate his victory with his campaigners and supporters.

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Trestle tables were laid out around the perimeter with bottles of water and Irn Bru - presumably a nod to his Scottish heritage. And things started serenely enough. With just a handful of people in the room at this point, Mr Galloway made his way down a flight of metal stairs that lead into the main showroom from the offices.

Yet at that exact moment, a bombshell was unravelling that would see events take a different turn. The journalists huddled around an iPad at the foot of the stairs watching Prime Minister Rishi Sunak give an address from outside Downing Street.

Mr Galloway embraced some of the early arrivals, just moments after Mr Sunak described his election victory as 'beyond alarming' as he warned that British democracy is being targeted by extremists.

“What started as protests on our streets have descended