Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Chairman blasts victorious MP for conduct during campaign
Despite bucking the national trend to increase her majority in Canterbury, Rosie Duffield has already faced strong criticism from her constituency association chairman.
In an email to local Labour members on Monday, seen by the Gazette, Ben Hickman blasts the victorious candidate’s conduct during the election campaign.
He references comments made by Ms Duffield on ITV’S Peston programme on the eve of the election which labelled the election campaign a “disgraceful race to the bottom” and predicted a Tory majority. He adds: “How this was supposed to help secure a Labour government, let alone stop a hard Brexit, is hard to imagine - as is how it must have made Labour activists feel up and down the country.” Mr Hickman identifies “areas for reflection”, including “showing unity with the national campaign”.
In apparent criticism of Ms Duffield advocating tactical voting, he adds: “Our candidate repeatedly called for votes against Labour candidates. In one instance, a week before polling day, we heard from Rosie that Jeremy Corbyn was ‘unfit to be Prime Minister’ and that Labour candidates should only be supported ‘in exceptional circumstances’.”
He says the association refrained from making any public statements at the time “to allow us the best chance of winning locally...but clearly they need to be addressed”. In the email he thanks local activists for their “heroic efforts”. He also thanks Owen Jones and Momentum activists who helped launch the campaign “and everyone else who helped from outside the constituency”.
Mr Hickman then adds: “And, of course, congratulations to Rosie Duffield, our re-elected MP and the campaign team behind her.”
The chairman invites all members to attend a meeting on January 8 to “debate how we go forward as a movement”. “Despite winning locally, we are not the People’s Republic of Canterbury (yet),” he adds. People’s Republic is used in the official title of several present and former communist and left-wing states.
It is not the first time Mr Hickman has been at odds with the MP.
In July, he described her claim that Labour was “probably” institutionally anti-semitic as “incredibly reckless”. Ms Duffield declined to comment on Mr Hickman’s email.