Oldham West - Danczuk Is Bust

One MP who has constantly, and consistently, talked down expectations for the Oldham West and Royton by-election has been nominally Labour Simon Danczuk, who represents the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale. This resulted in his being made less than totally welcome when he presented himself for service to go out knocking on doors with Jim McMahon’s team, an event noted at the time by Zelo Street.

Danczuk had told his own party - usually in the pages of right-leaning newspapers - that they needed to do better to retain the seat. This was apparently not taken on board by Denton and Reddish MP Andrew Gwynne, running the Labour campaign, yet despite taking little notice of Danczuk, and not making him welcome when he turned up, McMahon recorded a thumping victory over the hapless John Bickley of UKIP.

So earlier Danczuk pronouncements “Labour in a spot of bother in Oldham West by-election” and “Excellent article in @TheSun by @TristramHuntMP - setting out range of issues facing #Labour & #OldhamWest election” were instantly invalidated. And as the scale of McMahon’s victory became apparent, the ridicule ramped up in short order.

Paul Mitchell, no friend of the Danczuk régime in Rochdale, observed “Hearing Simon Danczuk in neighbouring Rochdale is crying into his tenth pint. Coup on hold”. No leadership challenges for Si this year. Josh Bowsher added “Must be weird to be @SimonDanczuk tonight. I don't think a labour mp will ever be as unhappy about a labour victory”. Or the size of that victory. And there was more.

The Red Labour Twitter account mocked him: “.@jeremycorbyn waking up to a fantastic result in Oldham West & Royton. @SimonDanczuk waking up to egg on his face”. But still Danczuk kept digging: invited to pontificate by Sky News (“first for breaking wind”), he told that “Jeremy Corbyn's ‘name came up in not a very good way when I was knocking on doors’ in Oldham: @SimonDanczuk MP”. Yeah, right. What doors?

Danczuk then suggested a left-wing candidate would not have done as well. ER, HELLO? Michael Meacher was as “left-wing” as they come. He was once described as “Tony Benn’s representative on Earth”. And the foot in mouth just kept on coming, as Darren McCaffrey at Sky News revealed “BREAK: @SimonDanczuk tells me he'll be reporting abuse and threatening tweets to him, councillors and staff to the police later today”.

Run out of money to issue legal threats, then? He could just have admitted he’d got this one wrong. He could also have addressed the understatement by Stephen Kinnock to the BBC’s Daily Politics that “Some of what @SimonDanczuk has written has been unfortunate”. Like putting a sock in it, at least until Christmas and the New Year are behind us. Because right now, Simon Danczuk is bust.

And that’s before he explains to his local party why he ignored them on bombing Syria.