Over five thousand sign petition asking for the Labour Party to 'offload' Simon Danczuk

Photo: Journeaux

Simon Danczuk

A petition asking the Labour Party and the Rochdale Constituency Labour Party to 'offload Simon Danczuk from the Labour Party' has attracted a staggering five thousand signatures.

The man who started the petition, Adrian Littlejohn, initially did so as a reaction, quite specifically, to Mr Danczuk's repetition of the "tired old Jeremy Corbyn and the IRA man" story, long admitted to be completely false.

He said: "Simon Danczuk MP is absolutely entitled to his opinions, and to express those opinions. Criticism of Jeremy Corbyn's performance as Labour leader is not only valid, but vital. Smears are less acceptable, and smears based on untruths are beyond the pale. Repeating unfounded allegations concerning the leader of your party, by right-wing media who you use as a platform, is surely not compatible with the aims and ideals of the Labour Party. Therefore we ask that the Parliamentary Labour Party withdraw the whip from Simon Danczuk, and the Rochdale constituency consider deselection.

Despite the petition gathering pace, and thousands agreeing with its sentiments by signing up, Mr Danczuk ignored the groundswell of anger aimed in his direction from Labour party members and supporters and continued to take payment from the Tory press in return for writing a series of articles that not only undermined the new Labour leadership but also resorted to ridicule.

Mr Littlejohn added: "Still taking the Daily Mail's poisoned shilling, we now learn from the sage of Rochdale that the Labour Party is comparable to a Carry On film (Carry on Carping, perhaps)? And he tweets about the governments "disgraceful" tax credit cuts, despite failing to vote against them, which seems a tad hypocritical to say the least.

"I don't ask for blind loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn, who is no more perfect than the next man, but he is the overwhelmingly, democratically elected leader of the party represented in parliament by Simon Danczuk, who surely owes some loyalty to that party.

"I cannot accept that taking payment from an avowedly anti-Labour newspaper to openly, publicly, mock the party, is consistent with the aims and values of Labour.

"Whether Simon Danczuk should be member of parliament for Rochdale can only be decided by the voters of Rochdale, of course, but whether he is Labour member for Rochdale, depends on the goodwill of the parliamentary and constituency Labour parties. This petition calls for that goodwill to be withdrawn."

https://www.change.org/p/the-labour-party-and-the-rochdale-constituency-offload-simon-danczuk-from-the-labour-party