Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency) The Liberal Democrats held the seat at first, with Liz Lynne winning at the 1992 general election, only to lose to Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons at the 1997 election. However, they regained the seat at the 2005 election, with Paul Rowen defeating Fitzsimons. In 2010, the town was brought to national attention when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman, Gillian Duffy, as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning (later described as "Bigotgate" by the UK media), but despite the unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat
Premiership of Gordon Brown announced on 7 June. These showed large declines in the Labour Party's vote. The far-right British National Party won seats in North West England and Yorkshire and the Humberits first ever seats won in a national election. All of these events led to mounting speculation about Brown's future as Prime Minister and a possible leadership challenge. However, Brown faced down his critics and was applauded at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on 8 June 2009. Brown continued to be unpopular; in September, Britain's biggest selling newspaper "The Sun" announced that after 12 years of supporting Labour, it would