Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice claimed his Rochdale election candidate Simon Danczuk received a death threat during the campaign and said his team had been subject to “daily intimidation and slurs”. Mr Tice alleged that “menacing behaviour” had featured throughout the campaign and questioned the validity of the postal ballots returned during the contest. He said: “This by-election and result should act as a serious wake-up call to those in power and indeed to the entire electorate. “We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy, this shameful contest has been more characteristic of a failed state.”