In 2017 Rosie Duffield made history when she ousted long-serving Tory MP Julian Brazier to win the true blue Canterbury seat. Two years on, and with another general election seemingly on the horizon, the county's only Labour MP tells Joseph Wright she has every intention of keeping hold of the 'best job in the world'...

On the wall of Rosie Duffield's Canterbury offices is a map of the UK displaying the results of the 2017 general election.

In Kent, a single red blob sits amid a sea of blue; as clear a picture as there can be of the scale of the Labour MP's historic victory over Tory stalwart Julian Brazier.

It's been 833 days since she raised a glass of Champagne on election night, and it’s fair to say it’s been a rollercoaster ride for the mum-of-two.

But she says she’s in no mood for climbing off just yet, and has her sights firmly set on retaining her seat should another election be called.

The 48-year-old has, however, yet to be formally selected to stand again.

“I don’t know how the reselection process formally works,” she says.

“I don’t know if anyone at Labour really does, but as far as I’m concerned I am standing again.

“I’m not sure what the next stage of that is. I’m not too bogged down with all the Labour Party rules, but someone will let me know I’m sure.”

A potential stumbling block could be a small faction of the local Labour Party, who have criticised Ms Duffield for questioning Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of anti-Semitism.

She made headlines in July for saying the Labour Party "probably is" institutionally anti-Semitic, falling foul of local party chairman Ben Hickman, who branded her choice of words "incredibly reckless".

She admits the pair are not a match made in heaven.

“We don’t see eye-to-eye politically on quite a few things but he is the chairman of the Canterbury Labour Party so we do work together on local issues if we can,” she says.

“I don’t think it’s unhealthy, as an awful lot of political associations have the same thing.

"I've lived here for 21 years and I can't imagine representing some random place I don't really know" - Rosie Duffield

"For instance, some local Tories here tell me they are absolutely aghast at the standard of the candidate who has been chosen and believe it doesn’t reflect them at all.”

That candidate is Anna Firth, a former barrister and mum-of-three from Sevenoaks.

She told the KM last month she will “100% win” the next election, but is she a tougher opponent for Ms Duffield than Sir Julian?

“Not from what I have seen,” says the former teaching assistant.

“If you’re not up to speed with local issues you are at a severe disadvantage.

"I’ve lived here for 21 years and I can’t imagine representing some random place I don’t really know.

“I’m quietly confident of my chances, but not complacent - you shouldn’t be cocky.

“I was never ever going to win last time and it was such a lovely life-changing thing that happened to me and I would love for it to happen again as I love the job more than I can tell anyone.”

With the next election shaping up to be a face-off between the Labour remainer and Tory leaver, the vote in Canterbury could almost be seen as a mini Brexit referendum.

“Her view on Brexit is the polar opposite to mine and I don’t quite know who she is appealing to,” says Ms Duffield.

“My stance on Brexit is like the constituency, which is to remain.

“There are a lot of figures banded around but I think it’s about 54% remain (it was 52.8%) and that’s without the EU citizens that live here as they couldn’t vote.

"I get hundreds and hundreds of emails about Brexit every week and very, very few - probably about eight a month - from those who support it.”

Asked if her robust stance is going against the will of the country and alienating the thousands of her constituents who voted to leave, the mum-of-two said: “I’m not going against them.

“We’re all split on Brexit and there is no right or wrong stance, but I believe for this area it’s vital we remain - or as close as possible to remain.

“I really hope I am a doom and gloom forecaster who is proved wrong but I don’t want to take that risk as it would be irresponsible to do so.

"If I think that tourism, universities, or our NHS are going to be affected of course I’m going to stand up against it.”

Ms Duffield says the proposals in place for Operation Brock - the county’s planned traffic management system in the event of a no-deal - are "so daft it’s like The Thick of It, but just not funny".

"I get ignored by the other Kent MPs a lot" - MP Rosie Duffield

“All of us [Kent MPs] are sitting there at Operation Brock meetings rolling our eyes listening to these preparations that haven’t been done,” she said.

"But I’m the only one who’ll speak out and criticise as I’m the only one not from the ruling party.

“Answers we were getting were 'planning is in place and we’re going to be setting it up' - we’re all sitting there just looking at each other thinking 'what is going on?'.

“There’s less than 50 days to go, so it really is scary.”

Ms Duffield says being the county’s only Labour MP can make life a little more difficult.

“I get ignored by the other Kent MPs a lot,” she admits.

“They have meetings, such as a recent one about east Kent health, and I’m just completely not invited.

“After I got elected I found out they held regular Kent MP meetings which I knew nothing about.

"It’s quite rude; I wouldn’t dream of not inviting other MPs to important meetings, though I guess they’ve been working together as a Tory team for a long time.”

A key topic for the constituency is the future of the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, which along with east Kent’s other hospitals is being scrutinised by top clinicians.

Health chiefs are considering either centralising key services in Ashford, or constructing a Canterbury super hospital - which developer Mark Quinn has offered to build in exchange for 2,000 homes in the city.

“There are going to have to be some really difficult choices which disappoint people,” she said.

Rosie Duffield's historic win in Canterbury

“Naturally I’m going to want Canterbury to have the biggest hospital but I don’t know if I’m necessarily backing any of the options on the table.

"It hasn’t even gone out to consultation yet so there is a long way to go before I do.

“Relying on private developers makes me very uneasy, but we may not have another option for Canterbury.

“We have a lot of activists in Thanet who don’t want to lose the services at QEQM.

"I don’t want to shaft them because they can’t travel here, so we’ve got to come up with something that suits everybody.”

Ms Duffield’s private life has also made national headlines in recent months, with pictures emerging of her with TV and radio presenter Adrain Chiles.

“As a public figure you come to expect stories about your private life, but I’d really rather not talk about it now, I'm technically not married, so...”, she said.

Despite often working as late as 4am, Ms Duffield believes she is in the "best job in the world".

“It is quite harrowing on a Friday at the end of the week - I very often end up crying at some point,” she admits.

“I never have five minutes to myself, which I’m quite keen on really.

“I do try to take Sundays off to be with my family, but I do also answer emails and spend many hours of the day on WhatsApp talking to other politicians, so I’m not as disciplined as I should be.

“Some of the abuse isn’t very lovely. You try really hard to do your best and sometimes it is upsetting to see but I’m tougher than I look.

“I don’t know what the long-term future is, but as long as Canterbury want me, I’ll stay.

“I’ll do it for as long as I enjoy it and then it’ll be time to hand over to someone else, but not just yet.”

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