GEORGE Galloway has endorsed Ed Miliband, saying he wants to see the Labour leader as Prime Minister, "the sooner the better".
The comments made by the Respect MP were seized on by Conservative HQ as an indication Mr Miliband was a weak Labour leader.
They followed an admission at the weekend that Mr Miliband had privately met Mr Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war, late last year.
A spokesman for the Scot made clear there were "no circumstances" in which he could return to the Labour Party "as it is", saying the suggestion was completely hypothetical.
And Labour played down the significance of the meeting, saying it was simply part of a bid to reach out to parties ahead of a vote on constituency boundaries.
"There is no attempt to bring George Galloway back into the Labour Party as many of his views are unacceptable," said a spokesman. In a newspaper interview yesterday, Mr Galloway did little to disabuse people of the view that, if the circumstances were right, he could one day seek to return to the Labour Party fold.
"I have always said I love the Labour Party a lot more than those who led it. If Labour became Labour again, everyone on the Left, including me, would have to reconsider their attitude," he said.
He said Mr Miliband asked for the meeting and he had "happily met him", and it was the first time they had met.
"I thought he was quite impressive, physically and intellectually," he added.
"I respected his father (Ralph, a Marxist academic) very much."
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