Simon Danczuk | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Danczuk in 2013 | |
| Member of Parliament forRochdale | |
| In office 6 May 2010 – 3 May 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Rowen |
| Succeeded by | Tony Lloyd |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Simon Christopher Danczuk (1966-10-24)24 October 1966 (age 59) Hapton,Lancashire, England |
| Political party | Reform UK (2023–present)[1] |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (before 2017) |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | Lancaster University |
Simon Christopher Danczuk (/ˈdæntʃək/DAN-chək; born 24 October 1966) is a British author and formerMember of Parliament (MP) who represented the constituency ofRochdale between2010 and2017. Elected as a member of theLabour Party, he was suspended from the party in 2015 after it emerged he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. He has co-written two books,Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith andScandal at Dolphin Square.[2] Danczuk was the unsuccessfulReform UK candidate at the2024 Rochdale by-election, which was won byWorkers Party of Britain leaderGeorge Galloway.[3]
Danczuk grew up inHapton,Lancashire and is ofPolish descent. He attended Gawthorpe School, now calledShuttleworth College inBurnley.
He began his working life at the age of sixteen in a factory making gas fires, before moving to the chemical companyICI.[4] Whilst working, he studied at night school and gained qualifications he had missed at secondary school. He then gained a place as amature student atLancaster University, where he studied Economics, Politics and Sociology.[5]
Danczuk became involved in theLabour movement after joining theLabour Party through theGMB trade union in the late 1980s. In 1993, at the age of 27, he was elected as a councillor toBlackburn with Darwen Borough Council and served for six years, with portfolios including economic development and education.[6]
In 1999, Danczuk became the founding director of a research, public affairs and communications consultancy called Vision Twentyone alongsideRuth Turner, who would later become Director of Government Relations withinTony Blair's Downing Street office.[7] Danczuk held this position until his election to Parliament in 2010. He also has held research positions atThe Big Issue in the North,Opinion Research Corporation,Bolton Bury TEC and worked for academics at Lancaster University.
Danczuk founded the Necessary Group, a campaign group of businessmen and politicians which campaigned prior to the expectedreferendums for an electedRegional Assembly for theNorth West of England.[8]
Danczuk was selected in early 2007 to be theRochdale Labour Party'sProspective Parliamentary Candidate.[6] He received death threats during the selection process, including a funeral wreath with flowers spelling 'Simon' and a four-foot cross being anonymously sent to his work office.[9]
Danczuk was first elected to Parliament in the2010 general election. He unseated incumbentLiberal DemocratPaul Rowen and secured a majority of 889 votes. Danczuk won the seat for Labour despite a microphone picking up Prime MinisterGordon Brown callingRochdale resident Gillian Duffy a "bigoted woman" on a visit to the constituency during the campaign.[10]
In May 2011, Danczuk made a criminal complaint toEssex Police about Liberal Democrat MP andSecretary of State for Energy and Climate Change,Chris Huhne, after it was alleged that Huhne had asked his wife, economistVicky Pryce, to take his penalty points for a speeding offence in 2003.[11] On 3 February 2012, Huhne became the first Cabinet Minister in British political history to be forced from office as aresult of criminal proceedings. Huhne was later tried and imprisoned, as was Vicky Pryce.[12]
Danczuk was known as a "long time critic" ofEd Miliband'sleadership of the party by the end of 2014, when he was alleged to be considering defection toUKIP due to his disagreement with Labour's stance on immigration and his positive appraisal of the 2013–2014 electoral successes ofNigel Farage's party.[13]
Danczuk was re-elected as the Labour MP for Rochdale at the2015 general election, substantially increasing his majority from 889 to 12,442 over the second-placed UKIP candidate.[14]
Danczuk was critical ofJeremy Corbyn'sleadership of the party following his election as leader on 12 September 2015. TheFinancial Times described him as Corbyn's "most outspoken internal critic".[15]
Danczuk was particularly active investigating historical allegations of child abuse against politicians. His campaigning attracted significant media attention and as a result he was one of the most high-profile backbench MPs.[16] In March 2014Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith was published, an exposé of child sexual abuse committed by former Rochdale MPCyril Smith, written by Danczuk along with researcher and campaigner Matthew Baker.[17] The book was serialised in theDaily Mail, and was named Political Book of the Year for 2014 by theSunday Times.[18]
In February 2016, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) conducted an investigation into expenses claimed by Danczuk, following several newspaper investigations and a complaint from the member of the public. The report, published on 18 March 2016 concluded that Danczuk had claimed residency expenses for his two oldest children over a period of 3 years, which was required to be repaid—a total of £11,583.20 as well as £96.50 claimed for car parking charges, which had been claimed while he was on holiday in Spain.[19]
The report's conclusion stated:[19] "The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the MP obtained an increase to his Accommodation Expenditure budget by claiming dependant uplifts for his two oldest children for a period of over three years, when, at no point were either of the children routinely resident. The Compliance Officer must also conclude that this was done knowing that there was no reasonable prospect of the children staying at the accommodation."
Danczuk agreed to repay the £11,583.20 stating that he "I readily admit I did not read the rules. I relied on a member of staff to describe the rules to me at the time".[20] In a later separate statement, Danczuk referred to the rules as "vaguely worded"[20][21] and admitted error on his part, stating he would repay the money at the earliest available opportunity.[20][21]
Following the report, the Metropolitan Police reported Danczuk referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for criminal charges however the criminal case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.[22]
In July 2016, Danczuk was then later alleged byThe Guardian newspaper to have claimed £500 to pay for a "crisis management" consultant's services over two days, three days after he was suspended from the Labour Party for his exchanging of sexually-explicit messages with then-17-year-old girl who had reached out to Danczuk's office seeking a career in politics.[23]
During aHome Affairs Select Committee hearing in July 2014, Danczuk called forLeon Brittan,Home Secretary between 1983 and 1985, to make public what he knew about a dossier of allegations against politicians presented to him byGeoffrey Dickens (1931 – 1995, MP until 1995), which could identify several historic child sex abusers.[24][25] TheHome Office stated that the dossier had not been retained in their files. FormerDirector of Public ProsecutionsLord Macdonald said the circumstances in which the dossier had gone missing were alarming, and recommended an inquiry into what happened.[26]
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron subsequently asked theHome Office Permanent Secretary to investigate what happened to the missing dossier. The same month, Danczuk wrote to theDirector of Public Prosecutions asking for a review of the decision not to investigate certain historical allegations of sexual abuse made against senior Westminster politicians.[27]
Danczuk's investigation significantly contributed to the decision of the government to set up theIndependent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, a statutory inquiry under theInquiries Act 2005, which opened on 9 July 2015.[28] During the investigation, it was revealed that formerLiberal Party leaderDavid Steel learned about Cyril Smith's behaviour in 1979, but did nothing about it, and later nominated him for a knighthood. As a result, on 25 February 2020, he resigned from theLiberal Democrats and resigned from theHouse of Lords on 27 March 2020.[29]
For his investigative work on child abuse, Danczuk was named Campaigner of the Year by thePolitical Studies Association in November 2014,[30] and won theContrarian Prize in June 2015.[31]
In December 2015, Danczuk's membership of the Labour Party was suspended, following reports he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl.[32] Danczuk apologised for his behaviour, which he described as "inappropriate and stupid", and said the incident occurred during an extremely low point of his life after his second marriage had collapsed.[33] Danczuk was not found to have broken the law and was not expelled from the party, but theNational Executive Committee of the Labour Party ruled that he would not be endorsed as a Labour Party candidate for the snap2017 United Kingdom general election.[34] He resigned from the party in May 2017 and contested Rochdale as an independent candidate, finishing in fifth place. Labour candidateTony Lloyd won the seat.[35] After the result, he said that he would not stand for election again.[36]
On the day he was nominated for the Rochdale election, he was accused of rape in the Westminster area of London, resulting in him receiving abuse online and on the streets. The Metropolitan Police confirmed they were taking no further action shortly before the election, with him believing the accusation was an attempt to "sabotage" his campaign.[37]
In February 2024, Danczuk announced that he had joinedReform UK three months prior, and would be the party's candidate for the2024 Rochdale by-election.[38][39] Danczuk came sixth, with 6.3 per cent of the votes cast.[40] His party alleged that the election was rigged, also claiming that Danczuk was threatened and subjected to "menacing behaviour". No further evidence was presented for the claim of rigging.[41]
One individual was taken into custody, after posting a video online referencing Danczuk's leaflet, which stated "vote for Rochdale, not Gaza", and saying that Danczuk resembled theEastEnders TV characterPhil Mitchell, before threatening Danczuk.[41][42] The individual was later arrested.[43]
Danczuk has been married three times; his first two marriages ended in divorce, and he has two children each with his first and second wives.[44]
Danczuk marriedKaren Burke in 2012.[45] They have two sons.[46] The couple separated in June 2015.[47] In July 2015, he said that he had been suffering fromdepression caused by his campaigning work on child sexual abuse and that this had affected their marriage.[48][49]
In 2022, he became engaged to Claudine Uwamahoro, a Rwandan beauty therapist whom he met on a business trip toRwanda in March 2022,[50] and they married in July 2023.[51]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRochdale 2010–2017 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
