It is difficult to imagine anything good emerging from the wreckage of the Rochdale by-election

Editorial: Vague promises of ‘levelling up’ gone nowhere, grooming gangs, and now antisemitism – Rochdale deserves better than this

(Dave Brown)

With the highly honourable and notable exception of its last MP, Tony Lloyd, it’s fair to say that Rochdale has in recent decades not been served well by politicians. The failings of the Labour council during the grooming gangs scandal have been well documented, and governments of all parties have allowed the town, like others, to be “left behind”.

“Levelling up” remains, at best, a vague promise. Even Rochdale’s one-time national celebrity MP, the Liberal Cyril Smith, was eventually uncovered as a serial child abuser. Its last-but-one Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, was suspended from the Labour Party in 2015 after it emerged that he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. He is now standing in the by-election as the candidate for Reform UK.

Now, Labour’s by-election candidate, Azhar Ali, has been disowned by Labour for some appallingly antisemitic remarks. Yet his name will appear on the ballot paper next to the words “Labour Party”, and he could still win. Labour has thus let the people of Rochdale down badly – but it is not the first time, and neither is it the first party to be guilty of this.