Simon Danczuk Rochdale Candidate on Mahyar Tousi
Simon is the Reform UK candidate for Rochdale in the by election on 29th February
Video Transcript:
Well welcome back to Tousi TV ladies and gentlemen. I’m joined by another patriotic human in Britain, Simon Danczuk who is now the Reform UK candidate in Rochdale standing up against the mainstream parties, the Tories, Labour and all the other Nutters.
Obviously Simon used to be an MP, Labour MP actually and uh he won in 2010 despite the fact that for those of you who remember 2010, Gordon Brown didn’t make it easy for Simon because he went to Rochdale and the whole incident with Jillian Duffy happened when he called her a bigoted woman. Yet still somehow Simon managed to beat the Lib Dems. I believe where like it was like 800 votes that you won by.
Welcome to the show Simon how are you? Great I’m good and it’s nice to be on the show.
Yes, obviously and you used to be an MP for Rochdale so you’re not really an alien to that area but obviously your journey with the with the Labour party and you were a massive critic, outspoken they call the out most outspoken internal critic of Jeremy Corbyn so you’re not a communist that’s good.
So what what happened? Why Reform now?
Well I would describe myself as having been traditional Labour and so the Labour party that I joined was all about the world of work, supporting people into employment, getting people off benefits and into work. The traditional Labour party I joined was about stopping illegal immigration, being strong on Law and Order, supporting the royal family and yet the Labour party that we have now is what I describe as the north London Labour elite; David Lammy, Keir Starmer, Ed Millerband, Jeremy Corbyn for that matter and so it’s moved away from me.
What I find in Reform uh is that they mirror a lot of the beliefs that I have whether it’s tackling illegal immigration, I think have some good strong policies on that, turning round the boats, coming out of the European Convention on Human Rights, their policy in terms of taking people out of income tax if you earn £20,000 or less makes sense in terms of stimulating employment getting people into work so I like that idea.
Also the idea of nationalising the energy companies which is progressive really you know and you could describe as almost socialist so I don’t buy into this idea that politics is left or right. I think it’s much more sophisticated than that now, but Reform encapsulates so you know the vast majority of what I believe in so it’s a perfect fit for me. It is interesting because even small smaller parties or alternative parties like Reform even they because of the way you describe the political spectrum even they are Big C essentially so there will be some policy ideas where for example you you would have a debate with in a very civilised way with uh I don’t know, Ben Habib for example.
But, I think the overall it’s all about the overall values and I think that’s what it used to be the Labour party, traditional Labour party or the traditional Tory party and the Liberal party. It was mostly about everybody in the party at Labour believed in set of values the actual core message and obviously yeah you could have a debate about the tax rate or nationalising water or not.
I think that’s gone away, I think this is where the main parties have gone away from just being a big tent with the same values we actually have inside the Labour party and inside Tory party people with different values not just ideas.
I think is this where it’s also like difficult obviously you have your own circumstances with the Labour and all that nonsense but if in a normal situation you wouldn’t be able to see yourself with one of those two parties right because the difference between you and I don’t know the Corbyn side and then then Starmer side are so different, more different than you and Ben Habib right? Yeah, yeah and what you’re seeing with the main parties now particularly with Starmer and Sunak is really no values at all, no principles, no values, no ideology, no vision, no vision for the country so you’re getting this sort of managerial politics at the centre of our democracy which is really disillusioning people.
I find that when I’m knocking on doors, people are so disillusioned because you got this managerial style politics that can’t even manage so you know it’s not managing to run the country uh effectively and I suspect there won’t be much change from Sunak to Starmer come come a general election and that’s really creating disillusionment.
But the the opportunity for Reform is to really dramatically refresh politics in Britain and people are buying into that you know? You take into account that all the main political parties Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats have been around for literally hundreds of years we’ve been around three years and we’re on 13% vote in the Wellingborough by-election.
The Liberals who’ve been around for hundreds of years can’t even hold on to their deposit so I think we are on an upward trajectory, really making a difference. Improving the Reform brand in terms of people acknowledging it, becoming aware of it, there’s a real opportunity to refresh politics in Britain dramatically.
It is also interesting because with people like yourself and a few others the accusation that Reform was getting until now that it’s just Tory light, that kind of goes out because actually there will be policy ideas coming from yourself and many others that is more. I mean I’m just saying legitimate way they’re more protectionist or they’re more for for English workers, British workers rather than just kind of internationalist where it goes exactly against the Tory messaging so it’s not really Tory light anymore.
What’s going on in Rochdale it’s absolute chaos right now. Because you used to be an MP you know the area, has it actually changed that much because the arguments that we were seeing on the streets from the far left, the islamist side and even the Labour party candidates are seen as like rightwing because they’re not saying Israel should surrender.
What is going on in Rochdale? What’s going with George Galloway?
Well, that’s interesting the Galloway circus has arrived in town and the reality is he’s trying to appeal to a small vocal minority in the town predominantly Muslim voters. There’s no doubt about that really, talking about Gaza, putting Gaza first and putting Rochdale second. That doesn’t go down very well at all with the silent majority at this time, so I think George Galloway has been rejected by the majority of people and that’s what we we will see on Election Day.
I do believe that people aren’t enamored with Galloway at all, not the vast majority of people and you’re right in terms of Labour they chose a candidate who is anti-Semitic you know and there’s this debate you touched upon it this debate about oh people say Reforms on the right of British politics well all the anti-semites are in the Labour party. There’s only two political parties ever been investigated for racism in Britain that’s the British National Party and the Labour party so I think we have a strong record.
We have some great policies and I think we’re really you know connecting with people, getting our message across and politics have changed since I was last the MP. Here people are far less Tribal and it doesn’t just relate to Rochdale. I think people are far less tribal and that’s what we saw in 2019 people moving from Labour to vote for Boris and people are much more fluid in how they decide they’re going to vote. I think not gender, I think we’re gonna see some of it in Rochdale yeah, I mean, one of the things that we’re kind of facing right now is uh most of the country is becoming tribal but there are still certain areas where well that’s why if you work hard, personal vote actually matters.
Obviously your face and your name is known and I think one of the main things to focus on is the the actual local people and I think the Tory party and Labour party they still send a wrong message when they go to constituency by election or whatever they’re campaigning on behalf of Rishi and Keir instead of the actual local candidate.
You’re not campaigning on behalf of Tice are you? You know, you’re just doing local candidate yeah, that’s exactly right. I’m campaigning on local issues I’m putting Rochdale number one. Galloway putting Gaza first, that’s a definite distinction I know what the issues are here on the ground and you know I can rehearse them if you want me to, but they’re very important to Rochdale people and that’s what I’m standing on and and that’s how I won in 2010, that’s how I beat the Liberal MP.
He was campaigning on Climate Mania and National issues, I was talking about the bread and butter issues facing Rochdale and that’s what I’m doing again. In this by election I think it really does resonate because people in Rochdale want somebody who will talk up for the town, stand up for the town and not just be an internationalist who’s more interested in the Middle East than they are in representing Rochdale.
Well are there going to be anything I mean hypothetically that would be a deal breaker if it’s in reform Manifesto or can you all work together because you are now a by election. I mean could there be certain issues that potentially not to create division but like you know okay uh we will have a discussion about this topic or I don’t know for example electoral system or whatever uh or do do you think that we can still say a solid team?
That’s an interesting point and you mentioned the electoral system I’ve always supported first past the post but I have to say I’m never set in my ways. I’m open to a discussion and a dialog and you do have to question whether the system that’s delivered the last couple of decades of government in this country is fit for purpose.
You know, I mean we’ve seen real decline, nothing works, nothing runs efficiently or effectively that must be related to the democratic system that we have so perhaps some form of proportional representation is what’s required and so perhaps that needs looking at.
But, there are many, very many different systems out there but yeah it’s certainly worthy of a discussion and but I have been a first past the post supporter until now I think yeah I mean obviously technically speaking was always also first past the post.
I think the problem we having is the political culture has changed if everybody that includes the electorate and the parties and the candidates if they all practice first part suppose the way it’s supposed to be and traditionally everything would work and that also includes the media, the way they cover things and it’s not just the system has become presidential, it’s just becoming tribal.
It’s just complete nonsense their local candidates don’t matter anymore even to the media and that’s why the last question is actually then obviously you probably have some good relationship with the local press and certain people in terms of the what’s happening there with your by election but do you think you’re getting the same fair coverage compared to Labour and the Tories because I don’t think I’ve been checking BBC and Sky, they don’t really talk about you and you were the former MP?
What’s going yeah, no they are coming to me very late in this campaign you’re exactly right there, Rochdale online which is local media have given me a fair shot, Manchester evening news interestingly just asked me two questions via an email whereas they’ve done an extensive piece on Galloway which I found bizarre.
The national media are coming to me a little bit more now because it’s quite clear that it’s a two horse race between me and Galloway and they’ve come to realise that and if I were a betting man I would put Reform on winning this, but let’s wait and see.
I’m going to check the the odds I might put some money on it just in case you never know. Thank you so much Simon for coming on the show, obviously Tousi TV will be hopefully in Rochdale on the election night to cover and report everything for you guys. Any last few words?
No, that’s good I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you, I’ve got a lot of work to do so back out on the doorstep this evening for a couple of hours and we’ll see what happens on the 29th of February.
Brilliant, best of luck. You are watching Tousi TV, I’m Mahyar Tousi and we are the media.
Find out more about Simons Rochdale by election campaign here