Speaker’s anger as trans extremists keep MP Rosie Duffield away from party conference

19 September 2021, 11:40 | Updated: 19 September 2021, 11:52

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has been forced to pull out of her party conference amid threats from trans rights activists.

Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle condemned the threats in what is being described as an 'unprecedented intervention'.

He said politicians should be able to appear publicly "without fear of harm".

Sir Lindsay said at a conference in Lancashire: “Parliamentarians, who have been elected to speak up for their constituents, should be able to attend their own party conference without fear of harm".

Ms Duffield claims she has been branded transphobic for "knowing that only women have a cervix".

She told the Sunday Times that online attacks on her were coming 'mostly from men' and 'very woke women'.

She said: 'There are some women who get involved and want to be seen to be very woke ... but mostly it is men, and the same men that have trolled me ever since I got elected.'

'So it looks like, feels like and smells like misogyny, and this is just the latest cause they have latched on to ... The fact that I am blonde — they call me a bimbo".

Ms Duffield, who chairs the Women’s Parliamentary Labour Party, said she took the decision not to attend “not because I really thought I was going to be attacked, but because I did not want to be the centre of attention.”