The desperation of Rochdale’s still nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk has been on open display recently, as he has desperately tried to find someone - anyone - who will allow themselves to be identified with him. But the revolt in local party branches which was revealed recently on Zelo Street is refusing to go away. And all the time, his day of reckoning at the hands of Labour’s NCC is fast approaching.
The NCC - the party’s National Consultative Committee - is the body which last week decided only to suspend former London Mayor Ken Livingstone after his frequent propensity to blunder into interviews and tell anyone who would listen “Yes, but Hitler”.The problem for Danczuk is that the revulsion across the Labour Party at the lenience handed down to Livingstone has caused the matter to be revisited.
And when Ken comes back before them, he is more than likely to be expelled. So Spanker Si cannot expect an easy ride for his “sexting” a 17-year-old girl, the falling-out at his “Spanish Gaff” in Algorfa which led to ex-wife Karen being hospitalised and Danczuk spending two nights in the Orihuela nick, the use of his constituency office for yet another casual sexual encounter, and a variety of other equally unfortunate incidents.
So what of Danczuk’s attempts to find pals? The scale of his desperation can be seen in a recent Twitter excursion: “I've teamed up with ex-mayor Robin Parker and together we're callling on @HistoricEngland to put #SevenSisters on heritage list”. That’s a name seasoned Danczuk watchers might remember: Robin Parker was the target of a dirty tricks campaign that was linked to his former sidekick Matt Baker.
In September 2015, Rochdale Online told readers “Former Danczuk spin doctor, Matt Baker, accused of 'vile attack' and 'smear campaign’”. Baker “was revealed as the author of an email that makes very serious and highly damaging allegations about former Rochdale Council leader, Colin Lambert and a former Mayor of Rochdale, Robin Parker - allegations which they say are completely without foundation and ‘libellous’”.
Robin Parker was accused in that email of having “sex with two girls with special needs that were in his care”. Colin Lambert consulted lawyers after the Zelo Street and Rochdale Online revelations. But now, Spanker Si has been forced to re-establish his relationship with the former Mayor. This may give him a little breathing space. But then comes the matter of all those branch no confidence motions.
After three branches passed those motions unanimously, I understand that a no confidence motion is to go forward to the full CLP, which does not meet again until next month. As soon as the agenda for that meeting is made known, the story will be out there and Danczuk will become the focus that less than favourable media attention - the kind that does not generate More And Bigger Paycheques For Himself Personally Now.
And that’s before all the questions over his contacts with Arron Banks. More later.
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