Rosie Duffield: MP opens up on domestic abuse which involved 'violent tempers and constant threats'
Rosie Duffield tells Sky's Sophy Ridge she is still not "entirely over" the domestic abuse she suffered.
Sunday 8 March 2020 09:45, UK
Labour MP Rosie Duffield has told Sophy Ridge on Sunday about her experience of domestic abuse.
Last year she chose to speak about her experience in a moving speech in the Commons.
And speaking to Sky News, she gave more details on what happened to her.
She said: "I ended up reuniting with someone just after the election in 2017 that I'd had a really nice relationship with for a couple of years.
"He came back into my life saying 'I know you're the same person and I really want to support you', and when you are just propelled into the limelight without any kind of preparation, I didn't have a clue I was going to win or be an MP, that old familiar kind of thing was really appealing.
"I thought this is someone who knew me and wanted to date me when I was a teaching assistant, it's going to be safe and he made all the right noises and said all the right things.
"Quite shortly after we moved in together, he was proposing and I felt kind of safe and everything around me was so new and strange but it didn't take long for me to see a completely different side to him."
She explained what happened when the abuse began.
"Violent tempers, constant threats, he was going to leave if I disagreed with him, at the drop of a hat he was going to go abroad, he was going to just leave and I was thinking, hang on a minute, I haven't done anything differently or wrong and it just stepped up.
"So the arguments would be, I don't know, maybe once a month at first and then it got very quickly to the stage where I couldn't say or do anything without being interrupted.
"And I got to the stage where I didn't want to go home and speak at all because every single word I uttered would be interrupted with some kind of barrier or some kind of argument and it just felt exhausting."
Asked how she feels now, she said: "Relieved but still kind of not entirely over it to be honest."
Ms Duffield welcomed the cross-party support for the Domestic Abuse Bill, which returned to parliament this week.
"It means that we can have that conversation, it means that women know that we're taking it seriously."