Discussion on transgender rights at the Canterbury Hustings

Transcript

00:00It's a chance for constituents to meet their parliamentary candidates, but at this Canterbury

00:05hostings the Labour hopeful missing. Rosie Duffield says she's not attending any due

00:10to safety concerns citing previous death threats. The former Labour MP has attracted controversy

00:17over their views on trans women, arguing there should be protected spaces where those born

00:22male are not allowed to go. And it didn't take long for a constituent to ask a question

00:28on this.

00:29I think we should address the question that is partly the reason she isn't here. And that

00:34is what do the candidates think is a woman?

00:38Adult, human, female.

00:40I really don't need to go into the detail of it. I mean that's about all I have to say.

00:47What I think about first before anything else is about those young people who need our help

00:55and that is as a teacher, as a former teacher, and I think just as a human, that's where

01:01we should be starting.

01:02For me, the broader discussion about women's rights, we should absolutely be having it,

01:09but we shouldn't be having it at the exclusion of trans rights.

01:12There are two sexes and two genders and it's a dangerous safeguarding issue to confuse

01:20children otherwise.

01:22As a Liberal Democrat, and the clue's in the name, you know, have the best life you

01:27can be. I can't imagine as a young person, if you're in a body that you don't recognise

01:32yourself, how difficult and uncomfortable that may be.

01:35Rosie Duffield didn't want to comment on this.

01:40And there we go, two hours of lively debate, lots of issues brought up, housing consistently

01:44brought up throughout the questions even when it wasn't related. And Rosie Duffield, the

01:49former Labour MP here in Canterbury, she got a few mentions, but what do the constituents

01:55make?

01:56I originally thought that I was going to vote Labour. A big thing for me about not voting

02:00Labour now is the fact that she didn't come tonight.

02:03You can always increase security, but you've got to face your constituents.

02:08In a way, the debate was a little about the person that wasn't actually here.

02:12You know, people can twist things so easily and I think it's the opportunity that we've

02:17had tonight to hear from candidates directly, I think that was a missed opportunity.

02:23We were allowed to ask her two questions earlier on a video call, like all of the sixth form

02:28students, but yeah, it's sad that everyone else here wasn't able to do that.

02:32Yeah, she came with answers that were very good, very real, and I think that the people

02:37who weren't here, weren't there to see that, have really missed out.

02:41With two weeks to polling day, constituents will now be making up their mind about who

02:45to vote for.

02:46And the Labour candidate says she's holding a recorded Q&A next week.

02:50Gabriel Morris, in Canterbury.