012 ROSIE DUFFIELD EXCLUSIVE
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elivering a seismic shock in June’s snap General Election, a century of unbroken Conservative dominance was dramatically brought to
a close in the city of Canterbury. With its incumbent MP Sir Julian Brazier having only recently been knighted earlier this year, few had predicted his seat was anything other than safe. However, the city’s Labour candidate
Rosie Duffield fought a well-focused campaign supported by a large percentage of its sizeable student population. Though they turned out in force to back her, there were many factors for her election – including many who had offered major concerns over Brexit at the referendum. There was also a notable issue of changing demographics as well, with younger voters recently moved to the area after being priced out of London’s housing market being judged to have found Labour’s policies of social support more appealing than a Conservative campaign fixated on leaving the EU, and a perceived need to continue austerity measures. As a result of her historic win, the 46-year-
old single parent found herself in the national media spotlight as her party polled far better than the vast majority of analysts, including Labour’s pollsters, had dared predict.
“It was a complete shock to have won. People like me don’t often get to be in parliament – from being a single parent teaching assistant one minute, to sitting opposite Theresa May the next,” enthused Rosie modestly on her achievement that was just one of a number of results ensuring the slim Conservative majority in parliament was eclipsed, with a Tory minority only able to hold on to its grasp on government through an alliance with Northern Ireland’s DUP party. Recalling
her unexpected moment of triumph, which overturned a Conservative majority of nearly 10,000 votes, Rosie added: “On the night, we thought we might be able to dent the Conservative majority a little.
a learning curve for her fledgling political experiences.
As she admits, despite having chaired Canterbury Labour Party for the past four years and campaigned on environmental and social issues, her one previous experience standing for office on the city council back in 2015 was unsuccessful. “We are still looking at the data
WHILE TRADITIONALLY CANTERBURY IS SEEN AS A WELL-OFF CONSTITUENCY, I THINK PEOPLE HAVE A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE AND
around the election, but it’s true that students did help us win the campaign and helped other young people register, but that didn’t account for the full swing towards us. “There
CAN SEE THAT SOME PEOPLE IN THE AREA ARE SUFFERING, WHICH AFFECTED THE VOTE
But when it came to the counting and we realised there were a few hundred votes in it, and that we might have won, it was just such a shock – it still is.” The city’s new MP conceded that her party “hadn’t seen the election coming” and she had initially planned to use it as
were a lot of people who had previously voted Conservative who were concerned about Brexit and didn’t want a government stuck on a ‘hard Brexit’. “There were
also Green Party voters who
believed that we were going in the right direction with our environmental issues who also got behind us.
“While traditionally Canterbury is seen as a well-off constituency, I think people have a social conscience and can see that some people in the area
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