Rosie Duffield MP
member of parliament for Canterbury

Rosie Duffield has served as member of parliament for Canterbury since 2017. She was the first Labour MP and the first woman MP for Canterbury. After resigning as a member of the Labour Party in September 2024, she sits as an independent. Her resignation letter created headline news.

She is a former member of the Shadow Women and Equalities team.

In October 2021, Duffield attended the first annual conference of the LGB Alliance, where she spoke on a panel about free speech alongside fellow MP Joanna Cherry. She has been one of the highest profile and vocal ‘gender critical’ parliamentarians over recent years and as such has been the victim of relentless threats and harassment, both online and offline. She regularly speaks up on the need to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls.

In parliament, she has been a member of the EFRA Select Committee and has frequently spoken up for farmers and rural communities and spoken out against the dumping of sewage off our coasts and in our rivers. She is chair of the All Party Dog Advisory Welfare Group, which aims to improve the health and welfare of the UK’s dogs and dog owners. She is a patron of the Canterbury Climate Action Partnership.

Before she was elected she worked as a teaching assistant in local schools, and with local charities, churches, parents’ groups and in the cultural and arts sector.

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