Select Committee to probe Simon Danczuk MP

IN June, Simon Danczuk the MP for Rochdale is expected to be called to face parliamentary colleagues on a Home Affairs Select Committee to respond to questions about his recent book 'Smile for the Camera:  The Double Life of Cyril Smith', that builds on the original case presented in May 1979 by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP).  The RAP editors published a story of several lads at Cambridge House Hostel for boys on Castlemere Street in Rochdale, in which it was revealed publicly for the first time, that the lads had been abused by the then Labour councillor Cyril Smith in the 1960s.  Smith later became a Liberal Democrat MP in 1972.

In the last couple of years since about June 2011, when he got a copy of Northern Voices No.12 at a fund raising event for his wife Karen, who is now a Labour councillor, Mr Danczuk claims he has had an interest in this matter of Cyril Smith. In 2011, Northern Voices No.12 contained six page-centre coverage of the historic Cyril Smith case, dealing with the original RAP story including some aspects of the original RAP report at Cambridge House, Smith's involvement with the giant asbestos company Turner & Newall, and some research into the revelance of the tragic case of Stefan Kiszco to Smith. 

Now Danczuk before his parliamentary colleagues, will have to answer questions about the allegations in his book about the sexual and physical abuse by the former Labour councillor and later Liberal Rochdale MP for twenty-years, Cyril Smith.  Using the fashionable language of modern times, Mr Danczuk insists that he wants to 'empower victims, give them a voice and make sure we have a zero tolerance approach to abuse in Rochdale.'  He added:  'Rochdale has faced up to its past and I'm confident we've now turned a corner... I'm determined to make our town stronger because of this.'

It seems that police have met with Danczuk about his sexual abuse allegations against another politician, and he told Radio 4's PM program that detectives visited him last Friday about allegations regarding a senior Labour figure, which the police are taking ' extremely seriously'.