Keir Starmer may very well be out ‘as early as the tip of January’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Rosie Duffield is not going to be shocked if there’s a newsflash within the coming weeks asserting that Sir Keir Starmer’s time as Prime Minister has come to an finish. Once a Labour rising star who turned the historically true blue seat of Canterbury purple for the primary time in 2017, she is now a scathing critic of the PM. The 54-year-old says nobody she is aware of thinks Sir Keir will lead the get together into the subsequent election, and she or he suggests his exit may very well be imminent.

“There are rumours it could be as early as the end of January,” she says. “We know that people are making moves, whether they deny it on television or not.”

She give up the Labour group of MPs in September 2024, blasting the “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” on the coronary heart of a celebration hit by so-called freebie-gate, the torrent of tales about high figures getting free garments and tickets to the likes of Taylor Swift. Her unhappiness within the Labour get together was no secret. She was amongst its highest profile champions of single-sex areas and rights primarily based on organic intercourse.

After criticising Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill in 2023, she stated the response from MPs reminded her of being in an abusive relationship. She described struggling “low-level trauma” at her “political isolation”. Ms Duffield as soon as chaired the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party however the gender controversies led to a state of affairs the place, she says, “people that I considered friends were frightened to be seen talking to me”.

She stays deeply upset at Sir Keir’s management right now.

“He was perfectly happy to see me being bullied from within the party,” she alleges, including he “has never stepped up to help, support or defend me or even speak to me about it”.

Would she like to sit down down and discuss to him about her remedy?

“Not now,” she says. “He’ll be a backbencher very soon.”

Has the PM ever supplied to apologise?

“Gosh, no. He doesn’t do that… I don’t think Keir ever thinks he’s done anything wrong.”

She claims she was punished “for believing in sex-based rights and believing in biological reality” – however she doesn’t rule out a return to the Labour group, and is happy on the concept of Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham returning to Parliament.

“I would seriously consider rejoining if Andy Burnham was to find a way of becoming the leader,” she says. “I think we need someone from outside London desperately…

“I think we need someone who’s achieved things and done things. Andy Burnham has.”

Ms Duffield warns her former get together towards changing Sir Keir with anybody in his cupboard.

“If somebody from within that tiny circle takes over as leader, I think Labour has got no chance whatsoever in the next election, absolutely none,” she says. “They are going to get wiped out.”

She acknowledges not everybody within the Labour motion would welcome her again with open arms.

“To be honest,” she says, “the people running the party now would probably block me rejoining anyway because they’re still mostly of the opinion that I’m a bigot or whatever for standing up for women’s rights.”

A landmark authorized ruling got here in April final 12 months when the Supreme Court determined the which means of the phrases “sex”, “man” and “woman” within the Equality Act is “biological”. But although she is assured her beliefs are consistent with nearly all of the inhabitants, she says the battle for single-sex areas and sex-based rights “hasn’t been won in Parliament” and “hasn’t been won in institutions or organisations or even the NHS”.

The intimidation of individuals with gender-critical views, she insists, continues inside firms and the general public sector “every single day”. She fears folks have been denied an opportunity to excel in politics and the humanities due to their beliefs about gender.

“I’ve seen such brilliant women and men who would have been good at politics but were denied the chance because of a belief,” she says. “And we’ve got some incredibly mediocre politicians now who just stick to the safest line and don’t have an opinion on anything…

“Often you can’t break into comedy or writing or even dance if you’ve got a gender critical belief. I think we’ve suffered.”

The Government’s trial of puberty blocking medication, she argues, is “horrific” and she or he desires it stopped, warning it should “come back to haunt all of us”.

Ms Duffield is unimpressed by “previously silent Labour women MPs” who’ve began to Tweet about ladies’s rights.

She says: “If you’ve shown no sisterhood to people whom you’ve watched being bullied, who are supposed to be your friends and your colleagues… I think those words mean nothing, they just mean you want to keep your seat next time and you realise that the tide has turned and you’re saying what the public want you to say.

“I think people are fed up with politicians doing that. They should have shown more backbone when it was dangerous, I guess.”

Tory chief Kemi Badenoch received respect amongst grassroots Conservatives as ladies and equalities minister, defending the significance of organic intercourse and arguing “no child is born in the wrong body”. Ms Duffield admits to liking Mrs Badenoch “very much” however this self-described pro-European lefty liberal knocks on the pinnacle any notion she may be a part of her get together.

“We just get on very well,” she says. “She’s very funny. I don’t think people necessarily realise how funny she is.”

Instead of on the lookout for a brand new get together residence, she says she is “perfectly willing to give it a go and stand as an independent”.

“I can take whatever stance my constituents ask me to,” she says.

Labour, she argues, “without question” nonetheless has a “women problem”. Talented feminine MPs, she says, are “completely sidelined” as a result of “they are simply not seen as someone who’ll spout the lines Keir Starmer and his team are putting out”.

“They have got their own thoughts,” she says. “They are good at politics – he’s not – and I think he probably finds those women intimidating.”

Like many MPs who’ve discovered themselves on the coronary heart of nationwide controversies, she has to contemplate her private security when out and about. Although she “desperately” misses having the ability to be spontaneous, there isn’t any tone of self-pity when she talks about her current life.

Ms Duffield describes her place as an MP as privileged and as an alternative focuses on the experiences of “people who have lost their jobs and people who have taken those life-altering drugs”.

She offers no signal of wishing she had not spoken out.

“I don’t regret that at all,” she says. “I’ve met some incredible people and made some brilliant friends.”