Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)

**Rochdale** is a seat represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has elected one Member of Parliament (MP) since it was created in 1832.

The Rochdale constituency has above average unemployment and many people living in poverty. There is a significant British Asian community in the constituency. Since 1997, the constituency has also included the semi-rural suburb of Littleborough where there are fewer poor people.

It was represented by Tony Lloyd of the Labour Party until his death on 17 January 2024 and a by-election is to take place on 29 February 2024. He was first elected MP for this seat in 2017; previously, he had been the MP for Stretford and then Manchester Central from 1983 until his resignation from Parliament in 2012.

## Candidates

Azhar Ali was selected as the Labour Party candidate on 27 January 2024. He is the leader of the Labour group on Lancashire county council. He was a candidate for the Westminster seat of Pendle in 2015 and 2019.  During the campaign, Ali came under fire over the content of a recording obtained by the _Daily Mail_, in which he suggested at a meeting that Israel allowed the 7 October attacks to go ahead. When the recording was made public, Ali said he was wrong to say that and apologised. Following information about additional comments by Ali, Labour withdrew its support for Ali on 12 February, and the party will no longer devote resources to his campaign. Before this Ali had received abuse for Labour's position on Israel despite his own support for Palestine.

Former Labour and Respect Party MP George Galloway is standing for the Workers Party of Britain. He is focusing his campaign on support for Palestine. He was critical of Keir Starmer. His activism was criticised by Azhar Ali as divisive.

Simon Danczuk is the candidate for Reform UK. Danczuk was the Labour MP for Rochdale from 2010 until 2015, when he was suspended from the party after it emerged he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. He then sat as an independent until the 2017 election where he ran for re-election as an independent but finished in fifth place with 1.8%, losing his deposit.

Iain Donaldson is the Liberal Democrat candidate. Donaldson was a councillor in Manchester for 19 years and worked as an administrator at the University of Manchester. He stated that his intentions would be to hold the government to account over the NHS, cost of living crisis, and tolerance of water pollution.

Guy Otten was initially selected as the Green Party candidate. On 7 February, however, after social media posts discussing Gaza and the Muslim faith he had made between 2013 and 2015 came to light, the party announced that they were no longer supporting him. Otten  said that he would not campaign in the election.

There are four independent candidates. Michael Howarth is a local business owner who is campaigning on local issues and support for additional NHS funding. William Howarth is campaigning on issues related to the Rochdale child sex abuse ring and child sexual abuse at large. David Tully is campaigning on various local issues. Mark Coleman is a climate change activist and former vicar of Rochdale who is campaigning for "radical action on climate". He was jailed in April 2023 for his part in a Just Stop Oil protest in Bishopsgate, London. Despite running as an independent, he has the support of two local Labour Party officers. He formerly ran as a Green Party candidate for council elections in Liverpool.