Despite comfortably retaining his Rochdale seat, Labour MP Simon Danczuk wasted little time in launching a scathing attack on his party’s leadership on the night of a famous Conservative victory.
The Tories are projected to win an outright House of Commons majority – or close to one, at least – with Labour losing a slew of key battleground constituencies.
Danczuk has been an outspoken critic of Labour leader Ed Miliband in the past and, although he avoided going into specifics, he hardly skirted around his desire for a change of direction within the party.
“There’s been a certain approach to the general election campaign, not just in the short term campaign but in the longer campaign, too,” Danczuk said, “Has that been right or has it been wrong?
“I think we have to look at that and see what mistakes were made. There’s no doubt about it – there were mistakes made, otherwise we wouldn’t see the results we’ve seen tonight.
“But now is not the time to reflect too deeply on it but over the next 24 hours, 48 hours I’ve no doubt the Labour party will be reflecting heavily on it.”
Danczuk, who won here five years ago on a slim majority of 889, roared to victory in a seat where his closest rivals in 2010 – the Liberal Democrats – saw their vote collapse.
Joined on stage by his wife Karen, of selfie fame, Danczuk made a somewhat triumphalist speech upon increasing his majority to an impressive 12,442.
“I think they have voted for stability and that’s what we’ve got to deliver. We’ve got to continue working hard for them and that’s what we hope to do,” he said.
“I think one of the reasons I’ve increased the majority is because I speak the language that people understand and I think there are lessons to be learned from that.”
In keeping with their nationwide collapse the Liberal Democrats fell back into fourth, while Ukip enjoyed a turn-up for the books, finishing second, 777 votes ahead of the Tories.
Masud Mohammed, the Ukip candidate, considered it a victory of sorts, and vowed to continue to fight to represent the concerns of the people of Rochdale.
“It’s a start of a great change, you know,” Mohammed said, “I’m grateful for the people of Rochdale and I will not give up. I will continue fighting for the people of Rochdale.”
Although it was something of an embarrassment to finish behind Ukip, Azi Ahmed, the Conservative candidate could also find reason for celebration.
“I think we did incredibly well. We couldn’t get anywhere near the Lib Dems for 50 years and what we’ve got now is a difference of 800 votes between second and third place,” she said.
“And what we’ve got to understand is that Ukip is just a short-term protest vote, so the only opposition to Labour now is the Conservatives.”
Finally, the Liberal Democrats’ Rochdale vote collapsed from 15,810 in 2010 to 4,667 today.
