00:00It's a chance for constituents to meet their parliamentary candidates, but at this Canterbury
00:07hostings the Labour hopeful missing. Rosie Duffield says she's not attending any due
00:12to safety concerns citing previous death threats.
00:16The former Labour MP has attracted controversy over their views on trans women, arguing there
00:21should be protected spaces where those born male are not allowed to go. And it didn't
00:26take long for a constituent to ask a question on this.
00:30I think we should address the question that is partly the reason she isn't here. And that
00:36is what do the candidates think is a woman?
00:40Adult human female.
00:42I really don't need to go into the detail of it. I mean, that's about all I have to
00:48say. What I think about first before anything else is about those young people who need
00:55our help. And that is as a teacher, as a former teacher, and I think just as a human,
01:03that's where we should be starting.
01:04For me, the broader discussion about women's rights, we should absolutely be having it,
01:10but we shouldn't be having it at the exclusion of trans rights.
01:13There are two sexes and two genders. And it's a dangerous safeguarding issue to confuse
01:22children otherwise.
01:24As a Liberal Democrat, and the clue's in the name, you know, have the best life you
01:29can be. I can't imagine as a young person, if you're in a body that you don't recognise
01:33yourself, how difficult and uncomfortable that may be.
01:37Rosie Duffield didn't want to comment on this.
01:41And there we go, two hours of lively debate, lots of issues brought up, housing consistently
01:46brought up throughout the questions, even when it wasn't related. And Rosie Duffield,
01:50a former Labour MP here in Canterbury, she got a few mentions. But what do the constituents
01:56make?
01:57I originally thought that I was going to vote Labour. A big thing for me about not voting
02:01Labour now is the fact that she didn't come tonight.
02:04You can always increase security, but you've got to face your constituents.
02:09In a way, the debate was a little about the person that wasn't actually here.
02:14You know, people can twist things so easily. And I think it's the opportunity that we've
02:18had tonight to hear from candidates directly. I think that that was a missed opportunity.
02:24We were allowed to ask her two questions earlier on a video call, like all of the sixth form
02:29students. But yeah, it's sad that everyone else here wasn't able to do that.
02:33Yeah, she came with answers that were very good, very real. And I think that the people
02:38who weren't here, weren't there to see that, have really missed out.
02:42With two weeks to polling day, constituents will now be making up their mind about who
02:46to vote for. And the Labour candidate says she's holding a recorded Q&A next week.
02:52Gabriel Morris, in Canterbury.
Comments