Arshad Ali was leader of the Respect Party from November till December 2012. Before his time as leader, Ali was a longstanding Respect campaigner, having contested council elections in Bradford's Manningham ward in 2007 and then the general election in 2010. He tried and failed to win Bradford West,[1] the constituency taken by George Galloway in 2012 in a landslide victory. Ali stood down as national chair in December 2012 after it emerged he had a spent conviction for electoral fraud.[2]