Simon Danczuk: A troubled maverick undone by his thirst for self-publicity

The political future of the Rochdale MP is hanging in the balance

Simon Danczuk in 2014 with his then wife Karen Danczuk, a Labour councillor nicknamed ‘the selfie queen’ (Rex)

Simon Danczuk’s six-year spell in the Commons has been characterised by a bizarre combination of much-admired campaigning, a turbulent private life, a weakness for self-publicity and an apparently suicidal mission to unseat Jeremy Corbyn.

Thanks to that unlikely mixture, the political future of the Rochdale MP – one of the few backbenchers to achieve national prominence – is hanging in the balance.

Few tears will be shed in the Labour leader’s office as Mr Danczuk has become his most outspoken internal critic, colourfully laying into Mr Corbyn in a weekly newspaper column for being out of touch with grassroots Labour voters, such as those in his Lancashire constituency.

His disdain for left-wing metropolitan politics has even led to speculation that he could defect to Ukip. Only this week he called for foreign aid to be diverted to help flood victims in northern England.

As the Corbyn bandwagon gained momentum in last summer’s leadership campaign, Mr Danczuk predicted an immediate coup against him and even offered himself as a stalking horse challenger to open the door to a more centrist leader.

His open and indiscriminate defiance of Mr Corbyn dismayed right-leaning sympathisers, who feared he was becoming a joke figure, as much as it infuriated leadership loyalists.

Calls had already been mounting for Mr Danczuk to lose the party whip, and the scandal left the hierarchy with no alternative but to suspend him.

The political headlines he has generated in recent years have been matched by the focus on his private life, which he has been keen to share with the wider world.

His former wife, Karen, became equally well known, earning the nickname “the selfie queen” after she posted streams of photographs of herself in low-cut tops on social media.

As their marriage collapsed, amid huge publicity, she called him an “arrogant alcoholic” and he spoke of his battle with depression. Within months he embarked on a very public relationship with a councillor, Claire Hamilton, taking centre stage with her on the dance floor at the Mirror’s annual party at the Labour conference.

On Boxing Day she tweeted a picture of them together at a Rochdale pub – just as floods swept through the town – with the hashtag “happy days”.

The spirit of goodwill between them did not last much longer and the next day she updated her followers: “Dumped Danczuk. He had it coming.” The Sun reported yesterday that she had ended the relationship after she saw the explicit text messages the MP had sent to Sophena Houlihan, who was then 17.

The sordid episode would have been damaging enough for any MP, but it is acutely embarrassing for Mr Danczuk because of the prominent role he has played in campaigning to uncover child abuse.

Two years ago he helped expose the activities of his predecessor in Rochdale, Cyril Smith, saying the Liberal MP had been part of a paedophile ring.

He vigorously pursued claims of VIP involvement in sex abuse in the 1980s and played a key role – with Tom Watson, now Labour’s Deputy Leader – in forcing Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to set up an independent inquiry into the allegations.

That achievement – and his campaigns on mental health and business rates – will now be overshadowed by the “sexting” storm he created. It is hard to see how the maverick and troubled MP who became a thorn in Corbyn’s flesh has a future in the Labour Party.