MP Rosie Duffield is open to rejoining Labour, but not while it is led by Sir Keir Starmer (Image: PA)
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said Sir Keir Starmer “looked at me like I was an alien” when she tried to explain her concern that women’s rights were being eroded. She said she could return to the Labour Party one day – but not while Sir Keir was leader. Ms Duffield found herself isolated and ostracised in the party in part because of her position supporting women’s rights in the trans debate. She eventually quit to sit in the House of Commons as an independent.
She has now revealed what happened when she had the chance to speak to Sir Keir and explain why she was worried. Speaking to GB News’ political editor Christopher Hope, she said that after “months and months of negotiation” she met with Sir Keir for the first time in four years last May. She said: “One of the whips managed to get me in front of him for 17 minutes. And that was after four years of trying ... and, he just looked at me like I was an alien.”
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She added: “I don’t think he has any concept of this particular issue or what people in the party have been put through over it, actually.”
Speaking on the Chopper’s Political Podcast, Ms Duffield said she found “it hard to believe that Keir is so far removed”, adding: “I’m just surprised he didn’t understand how many people felt so strongly and how many different groups were invested.
“He does seem to be almost completely unaware of all of the different sets of people that have been affected by this, like sports and clubs.”
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Ms Duffield was re-elected as a Labour MP at July’s election before quitting in September.
Sir Keir has now said he accepts that trans women are not women following the Supreme Court judgment that references to women in equality laws applied only to biological women. But this contradicts comments he has made in the past. In March 2022, the Labour leader said: “A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law.”
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Ms Duffield said she wanted to see “a clear statement from Keir Starmer... that we could see is definitely not necessarily an apology to women, but an explanation as to why he hasn’t been more clear so far”.
She added: “He’s flip-flopped around this for the last few years ... A lot of the people in the Cabinet now have always seen it as a fringe issue. They wish it would go away. It’s a bit awkward, a bit difficult to talk about.”
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Ms Duffield said she wanted to rejoin the Labour Party – but only when Sir Keir has quit. “The Tories were always very supportive. Kemi is a friend of mine. But we’re ideologically very different.
“I got elected as a Labour MP. My values are that of the Labour Party, as was before they turned into sort of an austerity party. And they’ve been a huge letdown to me and lots of other backbenchers.”
The MP said she would stay on as an independent “for now”, adding: “I would like to be able to go back to the Labour Party at some point, but that’s not on the cards under his leadership.”