The author of a report into George Galloway’s landslide victory in Bradford West appeared at a conference to discuss whether Respect’s victory was a verdict on political failings or a democratic revival.

Lewis Baston, the author of The Bradford Earthquake: How Bradford West Was Won was at the Kala Sangam centre, with fellow panellists Councillor Alyas Karmani, the group leader of the Respect Party on Bradford Council, Baroness Glenys Thornton, Labour Shadow spokesman for Equalities and Women’s issues, Adam Ramsay, of People and Planet and Ratna Lachman, JUST West Yorkshire.

Mr Baston told theTelegraph & Argus that he felt there was a sort of “frustrated pride” in Bradford.

“It is a city with large civic pride but has a sense of being sidelined,” he said.

“I have hardly been to another place so critical of its local politicians in every party on the Council.

“In a way that is kind of unfair as the Council is working very hard in very difficult circumstances and gets zero credit for it,” he said.

“I have never known somewhere so critical of its own local politicians which is part of the reason why Labour was put on the back foot in the by-election.”

Professor Kevin Hylton chaired the debate looking into the huge success enjoyed by Mr Galloway, who won the seat vacated by the late Labour MP Marsha Singh, who retired through ill health. Bradford West had been a Labour stronghold for decades before the 2012 by-election.

Mr Baston’s report said that the victory was an opportunity for mainstream politics rather than a disaster.

The 64-page document, by Mr Baston, of the independent research group Democratic Audit, and commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, was to explain the implications of the extraordinary by-election result.

One of the key findings of the report said that, in recent years, local politics in Bradford, especially Bradford West, had been marred by patronage, neglect and even electoral fraud and had been more about “mutual accommodation between elites of each community” which voters had found alienating.

It talked about the influence of ‘Biraderi’, clan-based loyalty among Bradford Pakistanis, which had in the past “offered parties an apparently easy mechanism to amass block votes” and said that Labour in Bradford needed to learn the lesson of the by-election and change itself radically.

“There is a danger of a political vacuum developing in the city which may be filled by fringe politics, despair or violence,” it continued.

Baroness Thornton said it was clear that that the local Labour party had failed.

“What (Lewis said) went wrong is absolutely right, but I know that some people do not agree with the report,” she added.

“People want to feel the party listens to them, and doesn’t take them for granted. There are three tests for us and they are that people feel listened to, championed and that they are not taken for granted. We are not there yet, but are on that journey by starting the women’s forum, and doing lots of work with youth.”

Coun Karmani said that he thought the report was on the right track. “It reflects most of the issues and I agree with it,” he said.

“There was a disconnect with the mainstream parties who did not think how much the electorate were disaffected because of what they see as neglected Bradford. I think they have taken the public for granted for the last 20 years and there was no real alternative in the city. I think what we had with George was people thinking for the first time they had a voice. Someone was talking their language and could actually do something about these issues.