‘Selfie Queen’ fails in bid to contest seat
KAREN Danczuk has failed in her bid to become a Labour Party parliamentary candidate.
The self-styled ‘Selfie Queen’ had hoped to be chosen to stand for Labour in the Bury North constituency.
But on Monday the party has announced they have selected James Frith to stand for the marginal seat, currently held by Conservative David Nuttall, in next month’s General Election.
Ms Danczuk, the ex-wife of Rochdale MP Simon, has tweeted her support for Mr Frith saying she will now campaign alongside him.
In a statement on Twitter she said: “Bury North have a great local candidate. When he last stood I helped on one of his campaign days and he is a great guy.
“Good luck to James for Bury North and thanks again for all your wonderful support.”
But former Rochdale councillor Ms Danczuk also took a swipe at the Labour Party ‘powers that be’ for overlooking working class candidates.
She added: “If anyone from the powers that be reads this statement I will say this.
“You want us (core working class) to deliver leaflets, to spend endless hours campaigning and trying to convince the voters that we are the party of socialist and the underdog, but the reality is the underdog isn’t good enough to wear your PPC badge.
“This is sad, if it wasn’t for underdogs like me Labour wouldn’t have any MPs.
“Let’s not be the party of the elite, let’s be the party of the people and let’s have the underdog fighting on issues in Parliament that only they understand.”
Ramsbottom Labour Party confirmed Mr Frith, founder of education and careers advice company All Together, has been chosen in a tweet earlier today, writing: “We are pleased to announce that Labour has chosen James Frith to be our general election candidate in Bury North.”
Mr Frith also praised Ms Danczuk and thanked her for her support tweeting: “Thanks Karen. Hope you’ll come and campaign with us.
“You’ve dealt with the nasties on here with grace. See you soon.”
Mr Nuttall holds Bury North with slender majority of just 378.
Speaking during a BBC Radio 5 Live interview in February, Ms Danczuk told how she wanted to get back into politics and use her fame to help victims of sexual abuse.
It came after she bravely waived her right to anonymity to reveal she was raped as a child by her brother Michael Burke.
He was jailed for 15 years following a trial in December for the attacks on his sister and two other victims.