MP opens up over abusive relationship
Favourite Starmer gives divided Labour rallying cry Rivals agree on need to tackle voters’ ‘loss of faith’
TRAUMA Rosie Duffield
LABOUR MP Rosie Duffield has told how she suffered domestic abuse.
Ms Duffield revealed in the Commons in October that she had been coercively controlled.
And yesterday, as she welcomed the return of the Domestic Abuse Bill to Parliament this week the Canterbury MP explained more of what happened.
She told Sky News it began with “violent tempers, constant threats”.
“I got to the stage where I didn’t want to go home and speak at all”, she said.
“Every single word I uttered would be interrupted with some kind of barrier or argument and it just felt exhausting.”
Asked how she felt now, she said: “Relieved, but still not entirely over it.”
KEIR Starmer has called for an end to Labour’s in-fighting to focus on beating Boris Johnson in the next general election, saying: “We’re unstoppable when we’re united.”
But the leadership frontrunner acknowledged that the party faces a “huge job” to rebuild itself after the drubbing it suffered in December.
Addressing the Daily Mirror’s hustings in Dudley, West Mids, he said: “We’ve got to pull together, divided parties don’t win elections.
“We’ve got to demonstrate to you and everybody else that we are a really effective opposition.
“We’re unstoppable when we’re united. We’re responsible for the next leg of the journey. It’s up to us.” As the long race to take over from Jeremy Corbyn entered its final weeks, rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy also used yesterday’s event to stress the need to get Labour fighting-fit. Wigan MP Ms Nandy said an “honest reckoning” is needed on why voters fled to the Tories. She blasted the manifesto for having a confused Brexit position and “nothing to say” on child hunger, and Mr Corbyn for allowing “factional war”. Left-winger Ms Long-Bailey warned industrialised areas like the West Midlands had suffered a “loss of faith” in politics over the past 40 years that only a “democratic
GOOD READ Mirror break for Long-Bailey
HIGH POINT Spoke movingly of his mother’s reliance on the NHS as the reason why the service should never be for sale. Applauded when he refused to rule out Britain rejoining the EU again. LOW POINT As the only male he was always going to struggle with a question on International Women’s Day on why Labour should have a woman leader.
“If Labour win the next election just think how proud you would be if you said, ‘I did that’.” revolution”, including devolution and investment, can restore. She said: “The Tories are trying to park their tanks on our lawns and we can’t be complacent. We need to go toe-to-toe with them.
“That means making sure all our campaigning zeal goes into these local elections as though we were fighting a general election. It’s that important.” In a wide-ranging debate, Mr Starmer warned Labour faces the “challenge of our lives” in taking on the PM over a post-Brexit trade deal with the US.
The Shadow Brexit Secretary claimed Mr Johnson would rather “rupture our relationship” with the EU than give up his