'I get lambasted while Boris does not,' says under-fire Labour MP Simon Danczuk

Updated

Sex-text MP Simon Danczuk said today he was being "lambasted" for being a working class Boris Johnson as he vowed to carry on as Rochdale MP.

The embattled politician compared his treatment in the media to that of the London mayor, as he dismissed a small protest outside his constituency office as a "rag tag" bunch of political opponents.

The 49-year-old has blamed a "drink problem" for his tangled personal life, resulting in the sexually-explicit messages he sent to Sophena Houlihan when she was 17.

He has been suspended from the Labour Party while an investigation takes place into his conduct, for which he has apologised "unreservedly".

Today Mr Danczuk said: "I do think there is an interesting dichotomy between people like Boris Johnson, who make a lot of money as a member of Parliament and indeed as mayor of London, whilst writing for the Daily Telegraph and the right-wing media and who has a very colourful personal life.

"And yet a working class lad like me in Rochdale, who writes for some of the national newspapers and has a working class colourful personal life, I get lambasted, whilst Boris, playing it out with debutantes and all the rest of it in this upper-class world, doesn't get lambasted.

"And I think there is still very much an establishment, class issue going on in terms of, you know it's a sociological issue is this, about how some of this stuff plays out, I think it's quite interesting."

Simon Danczuk: 'I've Made Real Mistakes'
Simon Danczuk: 'I've Made Real Mistakes'

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