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Simon Danczuk (born 1966) is the British Labour Party Parliamentary candidate for Rochdale.

Early life and career
Simon started his working life at 16 in a factory making gas fires for Main Gas before moving to ICI. While working, Simon studied at night school and gained the qualifications he’d missed out on at secondary school before gaining a place at Lancaster University where he studied economic sociology and politics as a mature student.

Simon is co-founder of and current director of [Vision Twentyone]. Simon has also held research positions at The Big Issue in the North, Opinion Research Corporation, Bolton Bury TEC and worked for academics at Lancaster University. He has written widely on topics such as democracy, homelessness, regeneration, drugs, housing and employment.

Labour Party
He has been involved in the Labour movement for many years having joined the Labour Party through the GMB trade union in the late 1980s. Simon is a former councillor, having been elected at the age of 27 and served 8 years before standing down to spend more time with his family!

Simon was selected in early 2007 to be Rochdale Labour Party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. Prior to this he has held the following positions:


 * 1) Campaign manager for Janet Anderson MP for Rossendale and Darwen Labour Party during the 2005 General Election – helping retain the seat for Labour with a 3,500 majority.
 * 2) Campaign strategist for Labour Party during the 2006 Local Elections – helping Labour retain marginal seats in the North West.
 * 3) Councillor on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council from the age of 27, for eight years, having responsibility for economic development and then education.
 * 4) Has sat on North West Labour’s Regional Board (the Party’s governing body for the region) for 13 years.
 * 5) Was Constituency Secretary for Rossendale and Darwen Labour Party from 1991 to 1994, when Janet Anderson MP took the seat for Labour for the first time in 1992, from David Trippier.

Personal interests
Danczuk says his interests are founded upon his own life experience and the social research he has done over many years. These include how best to alleviate poverty, employment issues, tackling anti social behaviour and business development.

Awards
Simon was named one of the 42 under 42 entrepreneurs in the North West by Business Insider magazine in 2001.