Simon Danczuk - The End?

Rumours have begun to circulate around his constituency that Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk may discover soon that the party’s judgment on whether he should be allowed back into the Labour fold has progressed not necessarily to his advantage. And while the final decision has yet to be taken, Danczuk’s own behaviour shows an increasing sloppiness, a hint that he no longer cares.

Take the issue of MP surgeries, a vital part of any Parliamentarian’s work, and one where Danczuk’s priorities have suddenly slipped. Last week, constituents who expected their MP to hold his surgery on the usual day - Friday - were disappointed to see him Tweeting “Busy weekly surgery today with @elsiewraighte: immigration; tenancy issues; housing benefit; Crown Prosecution Service decision; & more”, but on Thursday.

Why would he hold his weekly surgery a day early? We had to wait until Saturday for the answer, when he again took to Twitter to tell “Really enjoyed watching @englandcricket yesterday & well done to @jbairstow21 & @jimmy9”. Yes, when his constituents might have expected Simon Danczuk to be in Rochdale, listening to their problems and addressing their concerns, he was at Headingley watching the cricket.

That isn’t going to win him any brownie points, and nor is the frankly bizarre behaviour later than morning, when he - or whoever was in charge of his Twitter feed - blundered into a discussion which had passed adverse comment on Smile For The Camera, the book about former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith which bears Danczuk’s name, but was in fact written mainly by his former sidekick Matt Baker.

Snapping at a Tweeter called @bankersdidit, Danczuk asked “Hi John, still upset that nobody was interested in your Cyril Smith book?” Two things here. One, that Tweeter is categorically NOT John Walker, which Danczuk was suggesting. And two, Danczuk only secured his book deal on the back of the 12,000 word synopsis that Walker wrote, and for which, as Zelo Street has previously told, he was not paid a penny.

It got worse: that Twitter exchange had started with Danczuk sniping at Dave Hennigan, and may have been not unrelated to Hennigan’s earlier assertion “My quote to @SimonDanczuk last night - ‘You are a liar, a thief and you are going to jail’ If he thinks I'm going anywhere he's mistaken”. Hennigan had previously made a complaint to the Metropolitan Police about Danczuk, alleging fraudulent activity.

My information is that the Met is very close to taking a decision on how that complaint might proceed. So when Danczuk Tweets “Just been reading about what Freud called 'repetition compulsion' - fascinating. People who can't stop repeating the same behaviour”, he has to remember that he is not only a prime example of what Freud was describing, but that such actions can, further down the line, have consequences.

I am told that Danczuk’s week is likely to start badly, and get worse. More on this soon.