Rosie Duffield is the MP for Canterbury, having first been elected to the seat at the 2017 general election. She was first elected as a Labour MP, winning the seat from the Conservatives, and was subsequently re-elected as the Labour candidate in 2019 and 2024. She resigned from the Labour Party on 28 September 2024 to sit as an independent.

In the 2024 general election, Duffield (as a Labour candidate) received 19,531 votes (41.4%). The Conservative candidate received 10,878 votes (23.0%), while the Reform UK candidate secured 6,805 votes (14.4%). Duffield was duly elected with a majority of 8,653.

The Canterbury constituency in Kent includes the cathedral city of Canterbury and the coastal town of Whitstable. Before Duffield’s victory in 2017 (by just 187 votes), the Canterbury seat had been held by the Conservative Party for almost 150 years.

Political Career

Duffield is a member of the House of Commons women and equalities select committee (since November 2024) – the committee responsible for holding the government to account on equality law and policy, including the Equality Act 2010, as well as cross government activity on equalities. It also scrutinises the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Duffield resigned the Labour whip in September 2024.

In her resignation letter, Duffield cited disagreements with government policy pursued by Keir Starmer as prime minister – particularly the maintenance of the two-child benefit cap and winter fuel payments cut, which she labelled “cruel and unnecessary”. Duffield also pointed to long-standing disagreements on the party’s handling of gender identity policies and antisemitism allegations.

https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1840068589518209396

The resignation letter was scathing of Starmer’s leadership style. Duffield declared she was unclear as to the prime minister’s “political passions, drive or direction” – which she suggested made him unsuited to lead the Labour Party.

She added: “Since you took office as leader of the opposition you have used various heavy-handed management tactics but have never shown what most experienced backbenchers would recognise as true or inspiring leadership.

“You have never regularly engaged with your own backbench MPs, many of whom have been in parliament far longer than you, and some of whom served in the previous Labour government.

“You have chosen neither to seek our individual political opinions, nor learn about our constituency experiences, nor our specific or collective areas of political knowledge.”

Duffield also hit out at Starmer’s “managerial and technocratic approach” as well as his “lack of basic politics and political instincts”.

Duffield’s criticism was dismissed as “squalls” by Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Reflecting on his former colleague’s resignation, McFadden admitted there were some decisions taken by the government that “people don’t like”, but he told Sky News: “If anybody thought government was easy, they should have signed up for something else.”

Early in her parliamentary career, Duffield briefly served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the then-shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, Dawn Butler. A PPS acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

Duffield resigned from her PPS role in June 2018 to vote in favour of an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal Bill) that sought to prioritise European Economic Area (EEA) membership in Brexit negotiations. In doing so, she defied party instructions to abstain.

In April 2020, she was appointed as an opposition whip by the newly elected Labour leader, Keir Starmer. She resigned from this position in May 2020 after she admitted breaching Covid lockdown rules. According to a Mail on Sunday report, Duffield met her partner in her Canterbury constituency for a five-hour walk in April 2020. Guidance in place at the time banned people socialising with anyone from outside their own household.

In a statement, issued May 2020, Duffield said: “My partner and I have been attempting to navigate a difficult personal situation as responsibly as possible.

“I apologise that during that process, we breached the guidelines. A relationship breakdown is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.

“I hope people can understand why I took the steps I did and know that I take responsibility for the breaches that occurred and for which I apologise.”

In October 2019, Duffield delivered a speech in the House of Commons during a debate on the Domestic Abuse Bill where she described her personal experience of an abusive relationship.

She told MPs: “You learn that ‘I’ll always look after you’ and ‘You’re mine for life’ can sound menacing, and are used as a warning over and over again. It’s when the ring is on your finger that the mask can start to slip and the promises sound increasingly like threats.”

Duffield added: “Those patterns continue: reward, punishment, promises of happy ever after, alternating with abject rage, menace, silent treatment and coercive control.”

John Bercow, then the speaker of the House of Commons, said Duffield’s speech had been “simultaneously horrifying and as moving a contribution” as he had heard in his 22 years in parliament.

During Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party, Duffield established herself as a prominent critic of the party’s handling of antisemitism allegations. Speaking at the Jewish Labour Movement conference in September 2018, Duffield said MPs could “go on strike” unless the party fully adopted the internationally-recognised definition of antisemitism.

Duffield would go on to face a “motion of censure” by members of her Canterbury Constituency Labour Party (CLP) – which criticised her attendance at a demonstration against antisemitism in the Labour party in Parliament Square earlier in 2018.

The motion read: “We have observed the words and conduct of our Labour MP, Rosie Duffield, and we are dissatisfied at her decision to involve herself with groups and organisations that are campaigning to damage our party, as well as impede its efforts to ensure the right to criticise crimes committed by the state of Israel.”

“We are particularly concerned that Rosie chose to show her support for these parties at a demonstration organised to groundlessly accuse the Party of systematic antisemitism. She compounded this conduct by carelessly appearing to threaten the leader at a meeting of an organisation which, though affiliated with the Labour Party, does not at all times share its priorities.

“With regret, this CLP censures Rosie Duffield for this conduct.”

The motion was withdrawn after an outcry from Duffield’s Labour colleagues in parliament.

At the time, Duffield said the row had led her to consider her future in parliament. She told the Guardian: “It would be really nice if Jeremy could help each MP going through this with a personal statement, to make it clear that people – even those who do it without knowing it – don’t do it in his name,” she said. “I am not an anti-Corbyn MP just because I am standing up to antisemitism. That is a really clear line we could adopt…

“I was never remotely interested in factions – it was about fighting the Tories…I have a tiny majority and it’s such a shame we haven’t stuck together more and resolved some more of these issues. It is this small, tiny faction of about 1% of the party locally.”

Due to security concerns, Duffield did not attend local hustings events during the 2024 general election campaign. In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), she blamed “constant trolling, spite and misrepresentation”, which she said was “being pursued with a new vigour during this election”.

https://x.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1801649657237454969

Duffield previously served on the commons environment, food and rural affairs committee (2020-2024), the work and pensions committee (2018-2019), and served earlier terms on the women and equalities committee (2017-2018 and 2020).

Duffield is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for women’s rights, birth trauma, Tigray and dog advisory welfare.

Duffield delivered her maiden speech on 7 September 2017 during a debate on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. In it, she said: “As the first woman ever to have been elected in Canterbury and as a single mother, I want to be a champion for equality not only for women, but for the disabled, people of every ethnic and racial background, the young and the old, the LGBT community and people of all faiths and none.

“It is a scandal that in this day and age there is still inequality in pay and discrimination in many forms. All such prejudice has no place in our society; I will challenge and fight it wherever I find it.”

She added: “If there must be a Brexit, I want only the sort of Brexit that protects the rights of EU nationals to work in the UK, that promotes trade across borders and that is proud of our many students and academics who come here to study from across the world.”

Duffield stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for Canterbury City Council in 2015.

Prior to her election to parliament, she served as chair of the Canterbury Constituency Labour Party (CLP).

Political Views

Despite sitting as an independent MP, Duffield has stated she is still guided by her “core Labour values” – despite her criticism of the Labour government’s policies on welfare and its leadership under Keir Starmer.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent in April 2025, she said: “I’d like to rejoin, my values are core Labour values, I’m not going to change that, I’m never going to be a member of any other party but I can’t imagine being able to do that under Keir Starmer’s leadership, if I’m honest.”

In her September 2024 resignation letter, Duffield wrote: “My values are those of a democratic socialist Labour Party and I have been elected three times to act on those values on behalf of my constituents. Canterbury made history when its voters elected their first woman, and only non-Conservative, MP since the seat was created in the thirteenth century.

“My constituents elected an independent-minded MP who vowed to put constituency before party, and to keep tackling the issues that most affect us here – Brexit fallout, funding for our universities, our desperately struggling East Kent NHS, dire housing situation, repeated sewage pollution and protecting our vital green spaces.

“I am confident that I can continue to do so as an independent MP guided by my core Labour values.”

Social values and conscience issues

Duffield has been a vocal participant in debates concerning gender identity and is well-known for her views on female-only spaces and feminism. She described the April 2025 supreme court ruling that the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex” as a “victory for feminists”.

She added: “It’s about women’s rights – women’s rights to single sex spaces, women’s rights, not to be discriminated against.

“It literally doesn’t change a single thing for trans rights and that lack of understanding from a senior politician about the law is a bit worrying, actually”.

Duffield regularly receives support from JK Rowling – another prominent “gender critical” figure. Rowling defended Duffield after she declared her intention to sit in parliament as an independent.

The Harry Potter author posted to X: “Rosie Duffield was one of the few female Labour politicians with the guts to stand up for vulnerable women and girls.”

Duffield and Rowling are reported to be friends.

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1840122775953883252

Lying amendment: In January 2026, Duffield was listed as a supporter of an amendment to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, often referred to as the “Hillsborough Law”, that would extend the proposed criminal offence of misleading the public to include MPs and peers. Luke Myer, the Labour MP behind the proposal, argued that his amendment would mean “no-one in parliament would be above the law”, adding: “If politicians deliberately lie to the public, there should be consequences.”

Myer stated: “This amendment is a proportionate, carefully safeguarded response to a real democratic risk. It is not about stifling debate or political disagreement, it is about ensuring that those who seek or hold public office cannot deliberately and knowingly mislead the public without consequence.

“The polling shows that voters across the political spectrum expect parliament to act.”

Myer’s amendment won the support of 30 cross-party MPs.

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour leadership 2020: Duffield was one of 21 Labour MPs who nominated Jess Phillips for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, had been a prominent critic of Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. She withdrew from the contest on 21 January 2020, suggesting that she could not “unite all parts of our movement”.

Factional identity and party tradition

Tribune group (2017): Duffield was listed among the supporters of the Tribune parliamentary group – a caucus generally described as representing the party’s “soft left”.

The Tribune group was initially formed in 1964 to support the newspaper of the same name. It served as a prominent forum for those parliamentarians situated on the left of the Labour Party – but it split over Tony Benn’s campaign for the deputy leadership in 1981. Benn’s supporters founded the Campaign group – which evolved into the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG). Today, the Bennite SCG is strongly associated with the Labour left tradition.

During the 1980s, the Tribune group emerged as a more natural home for those on Labour’s “soft left”.

In 2017, Efford officially re-launched the group with a new mission statement calling for “opportunity and aspiration” to be placed at the heart of the party’s programme. Efford said he had reformed the group to ensure that the centre-left of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) “have a space in which to put forward ideas and debate which has not been there under successive leaders”.

He added: “The view of Labour MPs at the moment tends to be that too much are just Blairites who want to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. We want to show that is not where we are, and that we want to develop our own ideas that represent the centre-left of the party.”

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Duffield supported the Remain campaign in the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU), and therefore agreed with a majority of constituents, 54.7% of whom also voted to Remain.

People’s vote support (2019): Duffield signed a January 2019 statement by Labour MPs calling for a “people’s vote” or second referendum. The statement, signed by 71 Labour MPs, read: “Defeat of the Tory [Brexit] deal in a public vote would give us all a chance to campaign for the anti-austerity policies and a Labour government that deals with the true causes of the Brexit vote, and a reformed Europe that works for all people.”

Left-wing ‘people’s vote’: In March 2019, Duffield was among 20 signatories to a cross-party letter published in the Guardian that called for a second referendum and rubbished Brexit as a “massive assault” on working-class people.

The letter read:“We are campaigning to transform society, not for the status quo. We are against Brexit because it is a massive assault on working-class people, on the environment, on migrants and on the communities that the left aims to represent.”

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Duffield was one of 193 Labour candidates to sign the anti-Brexit “Remain pledge”, drawn up by the campaign group Remain Labour.

It stated: “Labour is committed to a confirmatory referendum, to give you the final say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to campaign to Remain in the EU.

Brexit trade deal: In December 2020, Duffield was among the 37 Labour MPs to rebel against the leadership’s position on the EU (Future Relationship) Bill – which enabled the government to implement and ratify its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Keir Starmer, the newly elected Labour leader, argued that while the trade deal negotiated by Boris Johnson’s government was “thin” and flawed, the only alternative at that late stage was a “no-deal” exit. To enforce the leadership’s position, a three-line whip was imposed. Duffield abstained over the bill. One Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, voted against the bill.

Electoral reform

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Duffield voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Duffield was among the MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Welfare vote (July 2025): Duffield went on to vote against the bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Winter fuel payment EDM: In September 2024, Duffield signed an early day motion (EDM) expressing concern over the government’s proposed changes to the winter fuel payment. The motion called on the government to “postpone the ending of winter fuel payments and establish a comprehensive strategy to tackle fuel poverty, health inequality and low incomes among older people.”

Assisted dying

Duffield voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

In a statement setting out her position, issued ahead of the bill’s second reading, Duffield said: “I have significant concerns about the detail of this legislation, particularly the lack of sufficient safeguards to protect the most vulnerable individuals in our society.

“It is vital that disabled, mentally unwell, those with learning difficulties and elderly people in particular are given the highest consideration. For example, we are learning more about coercive control but have yet to develop robust enough safeguards against it.”

“Neither our stretched Judiciary or NHS are currently able to undertake such a huge additional responsibility.”

Foreign policy and security

Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Duffield was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Before Politics

Born in Norwich on 1 July 1971, Rosemary Clare Duffield moved to south-east London as a child. She left school at 16 with no qualifications and completed an administration apprenticeship at Guy’s Hospital in London.

She subsequently attended a further education college.

After moving to Canterbury in 1998, she worked as a teaching assistant in local primary schools. She was also briefly a political satire writer.

Personal Life

Duffield has two sons from a previous relationship. She is currently in a relationship with television producer James Routh.

Trivia

According to the Sunday Times, Duffield’s resignation from the Labour Party in September 2024 (mere months after the July general election) made her the fastest MP to quit her party after a general election in modern political history.

Duffield is the first ever Labour politician to represent the constituency of Canterbury.

Duffield was the first woman elected as MP for Canterbury.