Danczuk: Toff Ed will cost me votes

VOTERS see Ed Miliband as ‘more of a toff ’ than David Cameron, a Labour MP said yesterday.

Simon Danczuk said his leader is so unpopular on the doorstep that he ‘will cost me votes’ as he tries to defend his marginal seat in Rochdale.

Mr Danczuk, one of a dwindling band of working class Labour MPs, said the party had been hijacked by a North London ‘liberal elite’ with little understanding of the lives of ordinary people.

He told the Labour- supporting New Statesman magazine: ‘Any Labour politician that says to you they knock on a door and Ed Miliband is popular are telling lies. It’s just not true.

‘I spend four hours knocking on doors on a Sunday – they (constituents) say things like, “You’re doing an all right job as MP but I don’t want Ed Miliband as Prime Minister, so I won’t vote for you”. So it’ll cost me votes.

‘He has an image of being more of a toff than David Cameron. That’s how the public see it. And what they mean by that is that he’s seen as more aloof.’

He also criticised the Labour leadership over the handling of Mr Miliband’s apology for posing with a World Cup edition of The Sun last year.

Mr Danczuk said: ‘(Deputy leader) Harriet Harman came out and said he was right to pose with The Sun newspaper and he was right to apologise for posing with The Sun newspaper.

‘And it’s that sort of double speak from politicians ... that turns people off politics. So when somebody hears a politician say that, you know what they think, if you pardon the language: “What a ******* k**b”. That’s the reality of it.’

Sources said the Labour leadership ordered Mr Danczuk to withdraw the comments. The MP later said the interview ‘does not fully reflect my views’.