Simon Danczuk received death threats during the selection process. The postal ballot got a 78% turnout and Danczuk received almost twice as many votes as the second-placed candidate. Seven members of Rochdale Labour Party who were accused of bringing the Labour party into disrepute by criticising his behaviour were expelled, or resigned, after a disciplinary hearing in September 2009. In the 2010 general election, Danczuk won 16,699 votes, unseating incumbent Liberal Democrat Paul Rowen, who received 15,810 as Conservative Mudasir Dean polled 8,305, despite the incident leading to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" remark having occurred in Rochdale. In May 2011,
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