Simon Danczuk MP

Fighting for Rochdale, Littleborough and Milnrow

Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, has signed the national Labour Party’s ‘Candidate Pledge’ which sets out standards the public should expect from him were he to be elected at the next General Election.

Simon said: “We’ve got to clean up politics once and for all. The MP expenses scandal of recent weeks has shown that the expenses system is rotten and it needs radical reform. It’s not enough for MP’s to say they were ‘within the rules’; they have to demonstrate that they are always putting the people first, not themselves.”

The Candidate Pledge commits Simon to:

- Seeking elected office for the honour of serving the people of Rochdale and our democracy not for personal gain;

- Subscribing to high standards of integrity, transparency, accountability and prudence with public money;

- Ensuring Rochdale constituents will always come first and complying with the current and any new rules on outside earnings;

- Publishing online my full salary and parliamentary allowances;

- Believing it is a duty to hold regular meetings, engagement events and surgeries with my community and constituents;

- Communicating regularly with the Rochdale electorate and being available through email, telephone and other means to my constituents;

- Regularly reporting back to my constituents.

Simon continued: “I’m more than happy to commit myself to these principles and hope that all other politicians will do the same. Rochdale needs strong political leadership that puts our town first and I believe these commitments will go some way to ensuring this.”

Gordon Brown said at the launch of the Candidate Pledge: “We've got to make sure that people see that their Members of Parliament and those who seek to represent them are acting in the public interest and not in their self interest. We've got to make sure that people see that their politicians are in it not for what they can get, but for what they can give. I believe that our pledge to clean up politics, complemented by the new Parliamentary Standards Authority that Harriet Harman is introducing, complemented by the new code of conduct for MPs and complemented by the review that is now taking place of four years of previous expenses, so we deal with any abuse, we deal with any repayment, we deal with anything that has been wrong and discipline people as necessary is the first start to making sure that the politics of our country are based on these principles: that we will always act responsibly and in a fair way."