Acclaimed film director Ken Loach is tipped to stand for the Respect party in the London assembly elections, it emerged today.
The prospect of the well-known director running for an assembly seat is likely to boost Respect's prospects at the elections in May.
Friends of Loach's say he is intent on standing for an assembly seat, while George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow who is also standing for the assembly, would only say that the director was still weighing up whether to join the party list.
Loach stood unsuccessfully as a Respect candidate in the 2004 European elections, a few months after the party was set up in the wake of the Iraq war.
Galloway told theguardian.com: "He is making up his mind at the moment. He has to make up his mind by the end of the week."
A spokeswoman for Loach said: "It's not yet decided so he won't make any comment on it".
The quasi-PR voting system for the assembly elections gives minority parties a greater chance of winning a seat on the 25-strong panel, which scrutinises the London mayor on behalf of Londoners.
For the assembly elections, London is divided into 14 constituencies, each comprising up to four London boroughs.
Members are elected to these through the traditional first-past-the-post system (the candidate with the most votes wins the seat).
A further 11 candidates are elected to London-wide seats using a list system.
To stand a chance of winning a seat on the assembly a party has to take at least 5% of the vote; around 7% would mean it was likely the anti-war party would secure a seat.
Respect, whose membership halved to around 1,500 following an acrimonious split last autumn, netted just 4.7% of the votes at the 2004 assembly elections, at a time when resentment over the Iraq war was still high.
But celebrity candidates could lift the leftwing party's chances at the polls.
Aside from Loach, the former Equity president Harry Landis is to be third on the party list, behind FBU official Linda Smith.
Landis is probably best known for his part as the friendly barber, Felix Kawalski, in EastEnders in the 1990s.
Galloway is top of the Respect list, and is therefore the candidate most likely to get on the assembly.
The leftwing Scot believes he would be a match for the outspoken mayor, Ken Livingstone, if he wins a third term as mayor.
Questions have recently been raised about the effectiveness of the 25-strong assembly in holding the mayor to account.
Galloway, who has built up a following through his twice-weekly Talksport radio show, said he believed he had the necessary skills for the job. "I would hold him to account and be a voice for the poor and disadvantaged who are unspoken for," he said.
"If you asked any Londoner to name two members of the London assembly, your money would be safe. That would no longer be the case if I came on. I am standing as number one on the list."
Galloway said he would remain an MP if elected, and would urge Londoners to vote for Livingstone as their first preference in the mayoral election.
Respect was founded in 2004 in the wake of the Iraq war after Galloway was expelled from the Labour party over his outspoken stance on the invasion.
Galloway overturned a 10,000 Labour majority at the 2005 election to unseat the pro-war Oona King and win the Bethnal Green and Bow seat by 823 votes.
