Rochdale by-election wasn’t called after ‘expulsion’ of MP by Labour

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, presenter Nick Robinson suggested the forthcoming by-election for the Rochdale constituency was caused by the “expulsion” from Labour of MP Simon Danzcuk 

During a segment on Labour withdrawing support for its Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali over comments he is alleged to have made about Israel, Mr Robinson said [starts at 2:12:20] there were now three men “rejected” by Labour challenging the seat, including: "The MP whose expulsion by Labour led to the by-election, Simon Danczuk, now running for Reform.”

However, this isn’t right. The by-election on 29 February is actually being held following the death of the incumbent Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd on 17 January days after announcing he had an incurable form of leukaemia. 

Mr Danczuk was the MP for Rochdale from 2010 to 2017, but was suspended by the Labour party in 2015 after newspaper allegations about his private life. At the time, he apologised “unreservedly” for what he described as “inappropriate” behaviour in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

Mr Danczuk was not allowed by Labour to stand as its candidate in the 2017 general election and stood as an independent. Sir Tony, who had formerly represented the Stretford and Manchester Central constituencies and served as the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, won the seat for Labour.

Mr Danczuk is now contesting the seat as the candidate for the Reform UK party.

There are 11 candidates standing to be Rochdale’s next MP.

We’ve contacted the BBC about this and will update this post if we hear back.