Labour broke convention by calling the by-election on January 29, well before their MP, Tony Lloyd, had been buried.
Nominations closed on February 2 and 11 candidates were announced: the main parties, me for Reform UK, George Galloway for his Workers Party, and five independents.
Just one week into the four-week campaign Labour jettisoned their candidate, Azhar Ali, for antisemitic remarks he’d made about Islamic attacks on Israel.
Whilst he remained on the ballot paper, for antiquated electoral reasons, the party stopped campaigning for him.
Simon Danczuk claimed that George Galloway 'dipped into his usual playbook'
PA
It wasn’t a good omen and it quickly descended into the most extremist election I’ve known in 35 years of doing politics.
Galloway was determined to win. He dipped into his usual playbook, appealing to Muslim voters, saying the election was all about supporting the people of Gaza.
Having been the Labour MP for Rochdale from 2010 to 2017 but having switched to Reform UK because of Corbyn’s then Starmer’s left-wing leadership, Galloway’s supporters clearly saw me as the main threat.
It became apparent that Islamists were determined to stop me from winning when a public hustings was organised via Eventbrite, but I wasn’t invited.
Turning up anyway, all the organisers, many connected to the Rochdale Council of Mosques, refused to let me join the platform.
I was barred from speaking to the people of Rochdale, only Galloway and the Lib Dem candidate took to the stage.
Then the by-election went from bad to worse.
Knocking on doors in Milnrow, a beautiful village on the edge of Rochdale, a couple of volunteers and I broke off for lunch from Dave’s Fish and Chip shop.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Simon Danczuk recalled the abuse he faced on the campaign trail
PA
Catching up on phone messages, I noticed one which began “You ugly Zionist masonic church member basterd…” It finished by saying “I am going to assault you when I see you and I care not of the consequences.”
It was accompanied by a private racist video message which repeated the abuse and talked about putting a bullet in my head.
The by-election campaign had quickly turned intimidatory. The police arrested the perpetrator that night but released him the next day on bail conditions.
Whilst I knew he was a 23-year-old Muslim man from central Rochdale the police refused to provide a picture of him because it would infringe his rights.
To this day, I still don’t know whether he’s been charged, and my family and I don’t know what he looks like.
The death threat was so worrying I insisted that my wife, Coco, stopped campaigning and left town.
Our campaign team, who were staying in accommodation close to where the perpetrator lives, had to be moved to a hotel for their safety.
Two ex-military close protection officers were brought in for the duration of the campaign.
The intimidation got worse. A local business which endorsed me and shared my leaflets with customers received messages from a foreign mobile number threatening to firebomb her premises.
Reform UK volunteers were reluctant to campaign for fear of their safety.
Then 36 hours before polling day I get a message from my ex-wife who lives in Rochdale with my two young children.
Intruders had attempted to enter the family home in the middle of the night but were deterred by the sophisticated alarm system.
We had to move my children and ex-wife to a hotel for safety.
The by-election has also thrown up questions about the validity of postal voting, which increased substantially, and the intimidatory campaigning outside polling stations on the day.
Death threats, intimidation and vote rigging are more akin to what one sees in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
By British democratic standards, this was not a free and fair election – it was an extremist Islamic by-election.
