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Danczuk best advised to shut up – Livingstone

DISGRACED MP Simon Danczuk was advised this weekend keep his “mouth shut” over the sex-text scandal that brought his suspension from the Labour Party.

The Rochdale MP was suspended on New Year’s Eve when it emerged that he had sent lewd messages to a 17-year-old who contacted him about a job.

In a letter to Labour general secretary Iain McNicol, his lawyers threatened action unless the party spelt out within the next three days what rules had been broken. It claimed that the suspension was damaging the reputation of the MP, who is also subject to a police investigation into allegations of rape.

Mr Danczuk has demanded that Ken Livingstone play no role in the national executive council’s investigation, claiming that previous comments had prejudiced his impartiality.

Hitting back, Mr Livingstone said he would be “quite happy” to play no role in the inquiry, saying: “I have to say the high point of my life isn’t investigating other people’s sex lives.”

He criticised Mr Danczuk for double standards, saying that the MP never raised objections when “good left-wingers were being thrown out of the party in the Blair era.”

And Mr Livingstone told LBC Radio: “I think all these threats of legal action are making it worse. If he’s worried about damaging publicity the best thing to do is just keep your mouth shut and let it all go a bit quiet.

“I think Simon should just calm down.”

Mr Danczuk’s former girlfriend Claire Hamilton has told the Star that she is willing to give evidence of the MP’s “disgusting” behaviour and “quite extreme” political views to a Labour inquiry.

Labour has suspended its internal investigation pending the outcome of the police rape inquiry.

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