Simon Christopher Danczuk ( DAN-chək; born 24 October 1966) is a British author and former politician, who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale between 2010 and 2017. Elected as a member of the Labour Party, he was suspended from the party in 2015 after it emerged he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. He has co-written two books, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith (2014) and Scandal at Dolphin Square (2022). Danczuk was the unsuccessful Reform UK candidate at the 2024 Rochdale by-election, which was won by Workers Party of Britain leader George Galloway.
He began his working life at the age of sixteen in a factory making gas fires, before moving to the chemical company ICI. Whilst working, he studied at night school and gained qualifications he had missed at secondary school. He then gained a place as a mature student at Lancaster University, where he studied Economics, Politics and Sociology.
Danczuk became involved in the Labour movement after joining the Labour Party through the GMB trade union in the late 1980s. In 1993, at the age of 27, he was elected as a councillor to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and served for six years, with portfolios including economic development and education.
In 1999, Danczuk became the founding director of a research, public affairs and communications consultancy called Vision Twentyone alongside Ruth Turner, who would later become Director of Government Relations within Tony Blair's Downing Street office. Danczuk held this position until his election to Parliament in 2010. He also has held research positions at The Big Issue in the North, Opinion Research Corporation, Bolton Bury TEC and worked for academics at Lancaster University.
Danczuk founded the Necessary Group, a campaign group of businessmen and politicians which campaigned prior to the expected referendums for an elected Regional Assembly for the North West of England.
Danczuk was selected in early 2007 to be the Rochdale Labour Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. He received death threats during the selection process, including a funeral wreath with flowers spelling 'Simon' and a four-foot cross being anonymously sent to his work office.
Danczuk was first elected to Parliament in the 2010 general election. He unseated incumbent Liberal Democrat Paul Rowen and secured a majority of 889 votes. Danczuk won the seat for Labour despite a microphone picking up Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling Rochdale resident Gillian Duffy a "bigoted woman" on a visit to the constituency during the campaign.
In May 2011, Danczuk made a criminal complaint to Essex Police about Liberal Democrat MP and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, after it was alleged that Huhne had asked his wife, economist Vicky Pryce, to take his penalty points for a speeding offence in 2003. On 3 February 2012, Huhne became the first Cabinet Minister in British political history to be forced from office as a result of criminal proceedings. Huhne was later tried and imprisoned, as was Vicky Pryce.
Danczuk was known as a "long time critic" of Ed Miliband's leadership of the party by the end of 2014, when he was alleged to be considering defection to UKIP due to his disagreement with Labour's stance on immigration and his positive appraisal of the 2013–2014 electoral successes of Nigel Farage's party.
Danczuk was re-elected as the Labour MP for Rochdale at the 2015 general election, substantially increasing his majority from 889 to 12,442 over the second-placed UKIP candidate.
Danczuk was critical of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the party following his election as leader on 12 September 2015. The Financial Times described him as Corbyn's "most outspoken internal critic".
Danczuk was particularly active investigating historical allegations of child abuse against politicians. His campaigning attracted significant media attention and as a result he was one of the most high-profile backbench MPs. In March 2014 Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith was published, an exposé of child sexual abuse committed by former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith, written by Danczuk along with researcher and campaigner Matthew Baker. The book was serialised in the Daily Mail, and was named Political Book of the Year for 2014 by the Sunday Times.
2016 IPSA investigation into expenses
In February 2016, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) conducted an investigation into expenses claimed by Danczuk, following several newspaper investigations and a complaint from the member of the public. The report, published on 18 March 2016 concluded that Danczuk had claimed residency expenses for his two oldest children over a period of 3 years, which was required to be repaid—a total of £11,583.20 as well as £96.50 claimed for car parking charges, which had been claimed while he was on holiday in Spain.
The report's conclusion stated: "The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the MP obtained an increase to his Accommodation Expenditure budget by claiming dependant uplifts for his two oldest children for a period of over three years, when, at no point were either of the children routinely resident. The Compliance Officer must also conclude that this was done knowing that there was no reasonable prospect of the children staying at the accommodation."
Danczuk agreed to repay the £11,583.20 stating that he "I readily admit I did not read the rules. I relied on a member of staff to describe the rules to me at the time". In a later separate statement, Danczuk referred to the rules as "vaguely worded" and admitted error on his part, stating he would repay the money at the earliest available opportunity.
Following the report, the Metropolitan Police reported Danczuk referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for criminal charges however the criminal case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
In July 2016, Danczuk was then later alleged by The Guardian newspaper to have claimed £500 to pay for a "crisis management" consultant's services over two days, three days after he was suspended from the Labour Party for his exchanging of sexually-explicit messages with then-17-year-old girl who had reached out to Danczuk's office seeking a career in politics.