Labour MP Rosie Duffield “bullied” and “silenced” over Scottish gender reforms
This piece was written in my capacity as the Free Speech Union’s Communications Officer, and a version of it first appeared in the organisation’s Weekly News Round-up. The Free Speech Union exists to protect those who’ve been cancelled, harassed, sacked or penalised for exercising their legal right to free speech whether in the workplace or the public square. Please take a look at the great work the organisation does - our Twitter account is here.
During last week’s House of Commons debate on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, Labour MP and prominent campaigner for women’s sex-based rights Rosie Duffield was heckled by her party’s own male backbenchers (Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph).
During her speech, she welcomed the Government’s move to make an order under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 preventing the Bill – which would cut the time it takes to legally change your gender, lower the age at which you can do it to 16 and eliminate the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria – from proceeding to Royal Assent. Ms Duffield went on to ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, whether he “recognised the strength of feeling among women and women’s rights groups and activists in Scotland that this Bill seeks to allow anyone at all to legally self-identify as either sex and, therefore, enter all spaces, including those necessarily segregated by sex, such as domestic violence settings, changing rooms and prisons?” (Times)
Writing in the Times, Jawad Iqbal describes what Ms Duffield had to endure while asking this question as “appalling bullying” – and Parliament TV’s clip of her speech certainly makes for uncomfortable viewing. As soon as Ms Duffield gets to her feet, the atmosphere turns nasty. Clearly uncomfortable, she struggles throughout to be heard over the abuse directed at her from her own benches. Lips curl. Heads are shaken. Facial expressions register unnecessarily theatricalised versions of ‘disgust’, presumably as much for the watching cameras as for the purposes of ostracising Ms Duffield. Just out of shot, Lloyd Russell-Moyle can be heard working himself into a spittle-flecked rage, barracking Ms Duffield throughout, while former minister Ben Bradshaw shouts “absolute rubbish” just as she’s defending the need for traumatised female victims of male-perpetrated violence to have access to spaces that are segregated by sex.
“A woman Labour MP being shouted down by male colleagues for expressing her views?” queries Jawad. “Hardly a good look for the so-called progressive party.” And yet some of Ms Duffield’s colleagues see the situation quite differently. Speaking anonymously to Pink News, one Labour MP claimed that “[Rosie] thrives on the attention” and that “many” in the Labour Party “are getting tired of her constantly undermining us all and attacking colleagues”. You can certainly see why Ms Duffield this week chose to compare being in the Labour Party to an “abusive relationship” (Telegraph, Times, Unherd). The act of blaming someone or holding them responsible for a situation they didn’t actually create is a textbook form of ‘gaslighting’ – i.e., a particularly egregious form of emotional manipulation.
Audio has also now emerged of Matthew Doyle, a senior aide to Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, briefing against Ms Duffield (Guido). Mr Doyle was caught on tape dismissing the MP as “irritating” and “disingenuous” and suggesting it might be helpful if she “spen[t] a bit more time in Canterbury [her constituency]” rather than “hanging out with JK Rowling”. Quite what this “irritating” woman is supposed to bother her pretty little head with once she’s returned to her constituency and allowed her male colleagues to properly discuss the impact of Scotland’s Bill on women’s rights, Mr Doyle doesn’t say. Powdering her nose? Tending to some children? Smiling vacuously and speaking only when spoken to by male constituents? No doubt the Whips Office will pass along a list of domestic chores in due course.
A party source has since claimed that Mr Doyle wasn’t briefing against Rosie. “Ceci n’est pas une calomnie”, as René Magritte might say. In response, Ms Duffield was quick to point out that whatever we want to call Mr Doyle’s remarks, their intended effect remains the same: “When women are considered difficult, these statements are obviously designed to undermine us. Sow a little seed of doubt… rumours that might catch on.” (Mail).
Jawad Iqbal concludes his piece for the Times with the following observation: “If Rosie Duffield – a single mother, a survivor of domestic abuse and a passionate advocate for women’s rights – no longer feels welcome in Labour, then who and what is the party for?”
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Excellent writing as always!