Congratulations to Rosie Duffield, who has won re-election for a third time as Labour MP for Canterbury. For many women – and men, indeed – Duffield’s courageous stance on sex and gender has been a beacon of sense, and a reason to vote Labour. She increased her majority from 1,800 to almost 9,000, an astonishing success in a county where she had previously been the sole Labour MP.
It started with LGBT+ Labour’s demand for ‘an apology and reparations’
Duffield’s success owes little to Keir Starmer who couldn’t even be bothered to invite her to his election campaign launch just up the road in Gillingham. Perhaps he is still smarting over cervix-gate, but he alone is responsible for that. It was Starmer who claimed that it’s ‘not right’ to say that only women have a cervix. However, that embarrassing nonsense followed Duffield’s ‘liking’ of a tweet from Piers Morgan that harrumphed a reference from CNN to ‘individuals with a cervix’.
That was enough to unleash the transgender thought police who appeared to have free rein in the Labour party. They could have criticised Morgan. Instead, they went after a woman in their own party who had the temerity to agree that it is women who have cervixes. That was 2020. Since then, her treatment at the hands of upstart activists has been appalling and unrelenting.
It started with LGBT+ Labour’s demand for ‘an apology and reparations’ – can these people not hear their own pomposity? When Duffield stood her ground, Starmer left her to get on with it. In 2021, Duffield pulled out of the Labour party conference over concerns about her personal security. Three years later, things are no better; in the run up to the election, Duffield had to withdraw from hustings events. In a statement she cited, ‘constant trolling, spite and misrepresentation’, which she said was ‘being pursued with a new vigour during this election’.
Throughout, Duffield has faced the bullying and intimidation with professionalism and fortitude. While ‘the actions of a few fixated people’ – to use her words – interfered with the democratic process, one Labour peer branded her ‘frit or lazy’. Michael Cashman – who subsequently apologised – was suspended from the parliamentary party for that crass remark. But the fact he felt emboldened enough to make it exemplifies the mess within the party that Starmer still needs to clear up.
With Labour colleagues like that, a lesser campaigner might have switched parties or left politics altogether. But Duffield is made of stronger stuff. Her grit is what her party badly needs.
Starmer forms his government with a majority of over 170. He can ignore the bullies in his party – or, even better, deal with them – without worrying about parliamentary arithmetic. But he will only fix the problem if he wants to fix it. At this stage, words are not enough. The women and men who admire Duffield would rather see some action as proof of his conviction. Starmer might have finally twigged that only women have a cervix, but does he have the balls to offer his MP for Canterbury the position of Minister for Women and Equalities?
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