Simon Danczuk Bangladesh Hypocrisy

Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk gives every appearance of being on a mission to alienate anybody and everybody right now. At the weekend, with much of his constituency hit by the worst flooding in living memory, he absented himself for a date night with new girlfriend Claire Hamilton. The next day, she announced that she had dumped him, as well as spilling the beans on his alleged shortcomings.

Now, as the press homes in on the question of flood defences, and how they are paid for, Danczuk has decided to alienate yet more people - arguably, the ones who put him in power in the first place, then made sure he remained there after May’s General Election.

He has openly questioned the UK’s foreign aid budget, which, by the most fortunate of coincidences, chimes with the editorial stances of both the Sun and Daily Mail. Both titles have suggested that there is some kind of binary choice between aid to the developing world, and flood prevention, which there is not. Danczuk, ever keen to get his name in the papers, has obediently gone along with the idea.

There is, however, one potentially serious problem for Rochdale’s MP here: the only country he mentioned as an aid recipient was Bangladesh (although in 2014 that country was not even in the top five recipients), and it is the local Bangladeshi community that he has been so assiduous in courting in the recent past, to the extent that he spoke to a male-only meeting under the auspices of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP).

Danczuk has also met Khaleda Zia, the leader of the BNP, even though “The party has also been accused of turning a blind eye to the growth of militant Islamic extremism in the country and for allying itself with Islamic fundamentalist parties, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, which had also opposed the independence of Bangladesh”. Khaleda Zia’s son has featured on an Interpol “red corner” notice: he is wanted by the authorities in Bangladesh on terrorism charges.

So for Simon Danczuk to speak at one of their meetings could be seen as both brave and controversial: from this it can be concluded that he set great store by securing the backing of the BNP, and much of the Bangladeshi community. But now he has told the Manchester Evening News “Divert foreign aid cash to boost flood defences, Rochdale MP demands”, and gone rather further with free sheet Metro: “Why do we spend money in Bangladesh when it needs spending in UK”.

Why? Perhaps some of those who got him that increased majority last May will remember this most recent outburst and let him know exactly why at the next General Election. Last time round, Bangladesh was a top priority for Danczuk. He wanted everyone to know how much he cared about the country, its people, and its workers. Now, he wants to know why the Government, er, cares about Bangladesh, its people, and its workers.

With friends like Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s Bangladeshi community needs no enemies.