The newspaper said it was in the public interest to publish the claims, based on documents found in Baghdad.

Mr Galloway has now earned an estimated £350,000 in damages from legal actions, some of which have been settled out of court. His most notable success was in 1992, a £150,000 pay-out after the Daily Mirror and Daily Record accused him of abusing his parliamentary privilege by stating that Robert Maxwell, the papers’ former owner, had links with Israeli intelligence.

COURT CRUSADE

GEORGE Galloway’s libel crusade through the courts has proved to be extremely successful.

His first and biggest pay-out came in December 1992, when he successfully sued the Daily Mirror and the Daily Record or £250,000, after they printed editorials accusing him of exploiting and abusing parliamentary privilege and alleging that he had links with an Arab terrorist organisation.

The award included £155,000 in damages, plus costs.

In March 1996, Mr Galloway received an unreserved apology and undisclosed libel damages from the publishers of the London Evening Standard over an article that questioned his financial affairs. The newspaper accepted the article, which appeared under the headline Do tell us how you do it, George, had made allegations which were without foundation.