SIMON DANCZUK only started attending Parliamentary Labour Party meetings to “pick up gossip” for his lucrative work with right-wing media outlets, according to his former girlfriend.

The latest register of MPs’ interest shows that the Rochdale MP made £32,484 from writing and contributing articles for the Mail group and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

And despite pocketing the cash Mr Danczuk does not even write the articles himself, according to Claire Hamilton.

Giving an insight into his previously cosy relationship with the rightwing press, she told the Star: “His aide rings up the papers and asks what they would like the column on.

“Simon then goes around Parliament trying to pick up gossip, including at the Parliamentary Labour Party.

“He told me that prior to (Jeremy) Corbyn becoming leader he would never attend the PLP meetings because it was too boring. Now he goes to see if can get some stuff for the column.”

An analysis of the articles shows Mr Danczuk made over £4,000 from attacking his own party leader.

But Ms Hamilton revealed: “he doesn’t dislike Jeremy as much as he makes out. His columns are mostly about Simon and making money for Simon.

“Jeremy Corbyn is ideologically driven. Simon is Simon driven. That’s the difference.”

The Labour councillor believes the Mail and Sun turned on Danczuk partly because he engineered a bidding war between them for his articles.

According to her, this “upset the Mail quite a bit because they thought they had someone guaranteed to criticise Corbyn every week.”