A Labour peer has apologised after accusing the party’s Canterbury candidate, Rosie Duffield, of being too “frit or lazy” to attend hustings. Duffield, who is seeking re-election in Canterbury and has risen to prominence because of her views on sex and gender, said on Friday she would no longer attend hustings because of “constant trolling, spite and misinterpretation”. Michael Cashman, a former EastEnders actor and Labour’s first openly gay MEP, replied to a social media post about Duffield’s decision saying: “Frit. Or lazy.” His remarks were seized on by Kemi Badenoch, the equalities secretary, who said on X: “I can’t imagine what it’s like being Rosie in a party where her own colleagues continually attack her, just for standing up for women. “This is now about more than women’s rights, but how a party manages internal disagreement. Instead of healthy debate, it’s intimidation and abuse. If this is what they do to their own, imagine what they will do to our country.”
Cashman apologised in a post on X on Sunday afternoon, saying: “I apologise unreservedly for a post that I put out regarding the Labour candidate for Canterbury. I fully understand any complaints that will be sent to the Labour party.” Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said Cashman’s comments were “extremely unfair”. He told Times Radio: “I strongly disagree with Michael. That is extremely unfair and I was very concerned Rosie’s not able to participate in hustings and is having to change the way she behaves because of abuse. That is wholly intolerable and unacceptable, as is the abuse Nigel Farage has had.” He added: “I count Michael and Rosie as friends and this is exactly the kind of division I’ve been working really hard to try and work through and heal.” Duffield said last week that she had made the “extremely difficult decision” to cancel her participation in local hustings because the “actions of a few fixated individuals” had affected her “sense of security and wellbeing”. She said she had had to “spend time and money on personal security”.
The row comes on the eight-year anniversary of Jo Cox’s murder. The Batley and Spen Labour MP was stabbed and shot by a far-right extremist in Birstall, West Yorkshire on 16 June 2016. Duffield, who believes that gender self-identification threatens women’s rights to female-only spaces, has been a target of abuse because of her views. She did not attend the 2021 Labour party conference following online threats after a row over transgender rights. Duffield has since claimed she has been left out in the cold by the Labour leadership over her views on trans rights. In what was perceived as a snub she was not invited to Starmer’s election campaign launch in Kent, where she was the only Labour MP elected in 2019. The Labour party declined to comment.