36 Facts About Rosie Duffield

Rosemary Clare Duffield was born on 1 July 1971 and is a British politician who was elected as Member of Parliament for Canterbury in 2017.

Rosemary Clare Rosie Duffield was born on 1 July 1971 in Norwich, and later moved to south-east London, where her father worked as an anti-terrorism police officer.

Rosie Duffield left school at the age of 16 with no qualifications and completed an administration apprenticeship at Guy's Hospital in Central London.

Rosie Duffield moved to Canterbury in 1998 and worked as a primary school teaching assistant in various schools, before becoming briefly a political satire writer.

At the 2017 general election Rosie Duffield was elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Canterbury with 45 per cent of the vote and a majority of 187.

Rosie Duffield was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dawn Butler, then the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities.

Rosie Duffield later apologised to the LGBTQ community for doing so.

Rosie Duffield voted for the UK remaining within the European Union in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.

Rosie Duffield was criticised by some local party members for her attendance.

In October 2019 Rosie Duffield succeeded Jess Phillips as Chair of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party.

Rosie Duffield was re-elected as MP for Canterbury at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 48 per cent and an increased majority of 1,836.

Rosie Duffield has been a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee since March 2020 and was previously a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee between June 2018 and November 2019 and the Women and Equalities Committee between September 2017 and June 2018 and March and May 2020.

On 14 April 2020 Rosie Duffield was appointed a Labour whip by the party's leader, Keir Starmer.

Rosie Duffield resigned from the position a month later after breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules when she met her married partner whilst they were living in separate households.

Rosie Duffield apologised and said she accepted her actions constituted a breach of the law at the time.

In July 2020, Rosie Duffield voiced in Parliament concerns about nitrous oxide being sold to and used recreationally by young people, calling for tighter restrictions on its sale.

Rosie Duffield said that use of the drug had become "much more prevalent" during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and cited health concerns over its use.

In June 2024 Rosie Duffield announced that she would not be attending local hustings for the general election because of concerns about her security, referring to "constant trolling, spite and misinterpretation".

At the 2024 general election, Rosie Duffield was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 41.4 per cent and an increased majority of 8,653.

Rosie Duffield told KentOnline that she planned to spend the Parliament "causing trouble from the backbenchers" if she was not promoted.

On 28 September 2024 Rosie Duffield announced that she had resigned the Labour whip and would sit as an independent.

Rosie Duffield described it as "frankly embarrassing" that he had appointed newly elected MPs as junior ministers.

On 14 August 2020 a lesbian woman, reported to be her only LGBT staff member, quit Rosie Duffield's team, saying that her stance was transphobic and had brought an influx of transphobic and homophobic mail to Rosie Duffield's office in support of the remarks.

Rosie Duffield reasserted her commitment to reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and to being a supporter of transgender rights following the staff member's resignation.

Rosie Duffield locked her Twitter account after a fake tweet attributed to her was circulated.

The Labour MPs Jess Phillips, Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting supported Rosie Duffield, as did the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who tweeted that "she does not seek to demean others".

In September 2021, in an interview on BBC Radio 4, Rosie Duffield said that: "There are men, activists, out there who are married to women who call themselves the Q word [queer], and they appropriate gay culture in a way that is deeply offensive to quite a lot in the gay movement, the gay rights movement".

In October 2021 Rosie Duffield attended the first annual conference of the LGB Alliance where she spoke on a panel about free speech alongside her fellow MP Joanna Cherry.

On 20 January 2023 Rosie Duffield wrote a column in which she stated that being a member of the Labour Party is like being in an "abusive relationship" and that she feels the party has a "woman problem" after she was criticised for voicing her opposition to the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

In 2020 several Labour groups called for the Labour Parliamentary party whip to be withdrawn from Rosie Duffield, arguing that her views are transphobic.

In November 2023 it was reported by KentOnline that Rosie Duffield was being investigated by the Labour Party for alleged antisemitism for liking a tweet by Graham Linehan which itself was a response to a tweet by the comedian Eddie Izzard.

The Times reported that Rosie Duffield had denied allegations of anti-semitism, stating that the tweet had been "sarcastically mocking" of Izzard's reference to trans people being targeted during the Holocaust.

Rosie Duffield issued a statement in January 2024, confirming that the complaint had been dismissed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

In September 2021 Rosie Duffield said she would miss the Labour Party conference in Brighton on security advice.

Rosie Duffield discussed the abuse directed against her with House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Labour's Chief Whip Sir Alan Campbell and her local police.

Rosie Duffield is in a relationship with a television producer named James Routh, and she has two sons from a previous relationship.