Simon Danczuk - A Tory In Disguise

As controversy continues to surround Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk, few have yet focused on his policy stances, where he lines up on key issues of the day. And that’s a pity: had the press done so, they might have had a surprise. An authoritative source has filled in the gaps for Zelo Street: the result is that all those shouting that Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents should “Join the Tories” may be right in this case.

For starters, Danczuk is opposed to bringing train operators back into public ownership - a key policy of his own party leader. And it would make no difference, had the Labour leadership contest been won by the candidate who came second, Andy Burnham, as this is a policy he also supports (Danczuk is rumoured to detest Burnham). Exactly what the voters in Rochdale think of that, where the private sector runs the trains and also has the contract to run Manchester’s Metrolink trams, is not known.

How about country pursuits? Most in Rochdale will not care, and those that do will most likely be strongly opposed, but I’m told Danczuk is pro-hunting. How many Labour MPs take that view? And what will his constituents think of someone who bangs on incessantly about the interests of ordinary working people? Most of those ordinary working people might not be too keen on an MP taking that view.

There’s more: anything called nuclear? He’s in favour of that too, so any move by Labour to oppose renewal and upgrading of the Trident weapons system won’t have Danczuk’s support. It’s doubtful whether he and Emily Thornberry exchanged Christmas cards. So it costs tens of billions of pounds? He’s still up for it.

And then we come to education, where, once again, Danczuk is, I’m informed, right in line with the Tories. He might not yet have gone The Full Gove and asked the loathsome Toby Young to open a Free School in Rochdale, but he’s all for supporting academies, and indeed creating more of them. Whether he’s told all those previously supportive people in his Constituency Labour Party is, once again, not yet known.

But one issue is missing, isn’t it? Wait no more: Simon Danczuk is all in favour of more private involvement in the NHS, even in Rochdale, birthplace of the Co-Operative movement. He would fit right in with either UKIP or the Tories, although of course if he stood under either label in Rochdale, he would be humiliated. But he would, I’m told, see no problem sitting as an Independent - so long as he remains an MP.

It would be fascinating to hear how Danczuk’s increasingly hard-pressed election agent Allen Brett is taking the news that the bloke he’s worked his socks off to get into Parliament (twice) appears to have very little attachment to the Labour Party, other than to satisfy the ambition of Himself Personally Now. How much support will the CLP continue to give their MP, when the bad news just keeps on coming?

The era of Simon Danczuk in Rochdale was for a time, but not for all time.