Whip’s all over for MP Duffield after date with lover
LABOUR MP Rosie Duffield has quit her front-bench role after she admitted breaking lockdown rules.
The member for Canterbury in Kent stood down as a party whip and apologised after confirming she met her partner while they were living separately.
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said Ms Duffield was ‘absolutely right’ to have taken ‘immediate responsibility’ and resigned.
The Mail On Sunday said Ms Duffield went for a five-hour walk in her constituency with married father-ofthree James Routh, a TV director, in April – and admitted he visited her constituency home.
Ms Duffield, 48, told the newspaper the pair observed the two-metre social distancing rules but their date was before meetings between people from different households were allowed. Mr
Routh has since moved into the MP’s London flat after separating from his wife, the MoS reported.
In a statement, Ms Duffield said: ‘My partner and I have been attempting to navigate a difficult personal situation as responsibly as possible.
‘I apologise that, during that process, we breached the guidelines.
‘A relationship breakdown is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. I hope people can understand why I took the steps I did and know that I take responsibility for the breaches that occurred and for which I apologise.’
Ms Duffield was elected in the 2017 general election with a majority of 187. She held on to the seat in the 2019 election, increasing her majority to 1,836. Her swift resignation was in stark contrast to the prime minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings who neither resigned nor was sacked for allegedly breaching lockdown rules after travelling to his parents’ farm in Durham.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has admitted he did not know the whereabouts of Mr Cummings while he stood in for the prime minister.
Mr Raab said, when Mr Johnson was taken into hospital with Covid-19 and he was left in charge, all he knew was that the adviser ‘was out of action because he had come down with coronavirus’.
Asked when he found out that Mr Cummings had left London and driven to Durham, Mr Raab told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: ‘I’m not sure.
‘But, to be honest with you, when the story broke was when I first became aware of the detail of it.’