Simon Danczuk has tonight resigned from the Labour Party in a strong sign he may be preparing to stand as an independent candidate in Rochdale. He writes to Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol:

“The Labour Party is no longer the positive political movement that I joined nearly 30 years ago. Indeed, under its current leadership the Labour Party is more interested in serving its own ends rather than those of hard working people for whom the party was originally established. 

“With frontbench spokespeople, such as John McDonnell, continually obsessing about Karl Marx, the benefits of communism and celebrating the reign of Joseph Stalin, I feel the Labour Party has totally lost touch with its social democratic values and indeed with reality in 21st Century Britain.

“Importantly, I am also concerned that the Labour Party has shown itself not to have the interests of Rochdale at heart. The way in which the party are treating the Parliamentary seat of Rochdale as a ‘safe seat’ in to which they can simply parachute a Corbyn supporting candidate is deplorable. The People of Rochdale deserve so much more than being treated with such disdain by the Labour Party.

“With Theresa May likely to win a landslide victory at the General Election and subsequently holding a very large majority in Parliament, Rochdale people need someone who will speak up for them, who will voice their concerns rather than simply being voting fodder for Jeremy Corbyn.”

Sounds like Danczuk is lining himself up for a serious run at the seat…